The Media Networking Alliance (MNA) has announced the membership of two major Chinese audio technology companies – 3G Audio and Ningbo Soundking Electronics & Sound Company.
The first Mainland China companies to join the the professional A/V industry alliance – which was established to promote awareness and uptake of AES67 – have joined the MNA through the offices of Sam Zhao, newly appointed MNA Representative, Greater China. System Application Engineer, Greater China with QSC Asia, Zhao is a Beijing Broadcasting Institute graduate in Electronic Engineering who has focused on developing applications of A/V networking technologies from the earliest days of CobraNet, including as Chief of Technology Training Section at the Technology Management Center, at China Radio International. He has also written extensive technical papers .
Over the past 15 years, Zhao has trained more than 6,000 people in the field of DSP and network transmission solutions throughout Greater China, and has worked on a number of high-level network application projects for airports, theme parks and convention centres. He joined QSC in 2013, relocating to Hong Kong. The MNA appointed Sam in May 2016 as its representative in Greater China, to promote AES67 development in the region.
‘China is the biggest professional A/V market after the US, and the global leader for pro A/V production, with companies servicing both local and international markets, he says. ‘However, there is a major challenge with intercommunication and compatibility between different networking protocol and the various technical issues. AES67 helps to solve these issues. Already the MNA organisation is helping many manufacturing companies and system integrators to enhance their networking solutions, even as a brand new technical standard in China.’
3G Audio was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Dongguan City in Guangdong province. The company has sales offices in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, focusing on professional sound engineering, system design, technical services and product sales. A major speaker and PA systems manufacturer, the company has international distributors, including in Europe and the US. The subject of AoIP is of keen interest to the company in its future product development plans. According to CTO Ammon Ren, AES67 has a significant role to play: ‘The thing that excites us and, clearly, a lot of rest of the audio industry about AES67, is that it is pragmatic.’
Based in Ningbo, south of Shanghai, Soundking Electronics & Sound Co is among the largest musical equipment and professional audio manufacturers in China. The company was a leading supplier to the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and owns a number of leading professional audio brands in Europe. In a statement, the company says: ‘At present, the interconnection problem of loudspeaker and network interface is one of the key innovative technologies in the audio industry, it is also a problem requiring a solution that is a unified future standard for the audio industry. We have joined the MNA to help make that technological innovation reality, whereby we can effectively communicate with all members participate in seminars, promote international exchanges and expand the market, and also to further improve the level of technology skills and management for our company’.
