Led by established figures from the pro audio community, new company LEA Professional is set to introduce a series of new amplifiers for the install community, promising to ‘exemplify commitment to power, performance, advanced connectivity and bold, compelling design’.
Based in Northern Indiana, LEA is a start-up with pedigree. The engineering, sales/marketing, and executive teams feature established leaders in their fields with considerable accomplishments in terms of product innovation and business transformation and growth. Joining Blake Augsburger at the helm of the new venture is Jeremy Bules, VP of Engineering & Operations and Scott Robbins, VP of Sales & Marketing. Like Augsburger, Bules and Robbins each have more than twenty years’ experience in professional audio.
‘LEA Professional is inspired by many conversations with members of the professional audio and integrator communities,’ says founder and CEO, Augsburger. ‘We listened closely and looked carefully at amplifier performance, networking, UX and built a range of products and a new company that respects the way things get done today but offers a bold new approach capitalising on new technologies from outside the A/V domain.
‘We have a start-up mentality in that we’re lean, agile and ambitious but we do not suffer from the challenges that afflict many start-ups because we’ve all worked together and with our dealers and distributors for a considerable time. We have a clear mission and we have strong unique technology.’
The first physical manifestations of Augsburger’s strategy is a series of professional grade two-channel and four-channel amplifiers for small to medium scale installations. Featuring DSP, wired or Wi-Fi connectivity, webpage configuration and control, the LEA Connect Series will be the first IoT enabled professional-grade amplifiers and will provide end-users with best in class sonic performance, ease of use and bulletproof reliability. The LEA Connect Series also underscores the company-wide commitment to the dealer/integrator community: easily and cost-effectively installed and maintained and with the capacity to support monthly recurring revenue (MRR) business models, the line was engineered with the needs and expectations of contractors in mind.
‘We’re approaching connectivity and control with a fresh perspective and no legacy commitments,’ says Jeremy Bules. ‘This enables LEA to cost-efficiently capitalise upon proven IoT innovations from global brands like Intel, Cisco and Microsoft while also bringing our unique amplifier technology to the equation.’
Scott Robbins, whose deep experience in the pro A/V channel provides LEA with a considerable edge notes: ‘Not only will our products be technically advanced, we will also focus heavily on the dealer experience. At LEA we are not confused about who the customer is; our customer is the dealer/integrator. Our products and support structure will be designed to make the dealer/integrator successful. Ease of doing business, timely and efficient pre and post-sales support, customer inspired product features, and advanced technology are the foundational elements upon which our company is built.’
LEA is positioned to serve the professional community of dealer/integrators and professional end-users. A six-year warranty with advanced replacement provide the assurance from a new brand, and also underscore the LEA team’s confidence in the product. Loyalty rebates and advanced service and support are also foundational to the LEA brand commitment. A powerful yet easy-to-use dealer ‘one-click’ digital commerce portal for order management is in development and will soon be featured on the company’s website.
Augsburger notes that LEA is empowered to innovate on pricing as well as technology and the dealer platform: ‘We want to be known for having the very best performing, best connected and best looking amplifiers in the market but we’re also determined to win on price. We can do that because our capabilities are of a twenty-year-old company but our overhead is that of a start-up.’
