Q&A: Stephen Calder
USD Limited’s Stephen Calder talks to HCD about the distributor’s new brands and how to build an installer-friendly business
HCD How’s business?
SC We are enjoying a very good time right now.We have built the business by working with developers and installers to design systems that are beginning to come to fruition on a major scale. Also, as the market for in-house sales is becoming more competitive, developers are adding value to their properties by including fully tted home automation systems. Previously, the trend was to provide pre-wiring and o er hardware as an after-sales option.
HCD What can we expect from USD this year?
SC We are adding two new brands from within the Niko Group. Intensia is a high-end, whole-house automation system, which is very powerful and future-oriented. Erea is our other new addition. It provides high-quality LED lighting solutions. By adding these fabulous new products to our range, we are able to o er custom installers some of the very best solutions available today.
HCD How important are trade shows like CEDIA Expo for US?
SC There are times when they are imperative. When we have new products to launch to the trade, or a major initiative to promote, trade shows are crucial. Currently we are reinforcing the proposition to consumers to support our installers – that’s why you won’t find us at CEDIA this year – but watch this space, we may well be back!
HCD Are home automation solutions a growing area of the custom installation business?
SC Absolutely! We are already seeing an uplift of finished solutions specified by developers. Add to that the increasing demand for lighting systems, integrated security and access systems; and home cinemas – and you can see the enormous potential for growth that we can all expect to enjoy.
HCD How important is it to have a user-friendly interface?
SC I believe that it is crucial. We see the io-homecontrol initiative, adopted by Niko, as key to the future of the industry. This is a new European alliance of manufacturers to provide a fully integrated system including hardware from leading companies such as Velux and, of course, Niko. Technophiles want the best – and a system that is user-friendly and designed to work together is the best solution. For technophobes, the reassurance and improved cohesion of a fully-integrated well-designed system gives confidence and trust.
HCD What kind of support does USD offer to custom installers?
SC We are committed to delivering the best possible support. We know installers must have support from specifying and quoting to commissioning and beyond. Our technical support team can often be found on-site helping installers deliver the very best job for their clients. With a 25-year warranty on Niko keypads and a programme of free training for our installers, we believe that the level of contact and support we provide is amongst the best in the industry – and we’re still working at improving it!
Face To Face: Ricardo Franassovici
Absolute Sounds’ MD Ricardo Franassovici is never backward at coming forward and here he tells HCD about how he’s making the high-end credible again
It would be hard to imagine high-end audio making its mark in the UK without Ricardo Franassovici’s influence. For the last 30 years, Ricardo, through his ‘hi-fi boutique’ Absolute Sounds, has shaped the landscape of high-end audio in the UK and helped put some now famous names on the audiophile map, both here and abroad.
Ricardo is never shy of expressing his own opinions, especially when he feels there is something amiss. And also, for someone who’s spent most of his life in the music business in one aspect or another, he has never, ever lost his passion for music.
In fact, it’s almost impossible to walk away from a chat with Ricardo without dipping deeply into Amazon, play.com or the HMV shop in search of that must-have early 1960s blues recording you’ve spent an hour discussing.
So, when it comes to custom install, one thing is a given – he’s seriously outspoken about audio quality.
“The solution often seems to override the signal integrity,” he says. “The programming is great, the racks look fantastic, but the quality of the signal is overlooked in the process.”
He points to systems with potentially excellent amplifiers and loudspeakers (not necessarily from his own portfolio) being compromised by being fed mediocre audio as the main reason for this discrepancy.
From most people these opinions would be easy to dismiss as the voice of a Luddite, but from Ricardo, it’s his perfectionist nature coming through.
“We’re not locked into any format. We never want to be perceived as promoting obsolete technologies,” he says, “but the traditional elements are still current.
With content coming from so many sources, the time of the music server is maturing, and its imperative to incorporate this technology into modern homes.”
No Luddite would be so excited about the Sooloos music server, one of his company’s latest distribution lines.
“We were concerned that we would compromise on sound quality,” he says. “That was the worry, but the Sooloos was the first brand to attain high-end audio credibility as well as high-end installer credibility.”
This new interest in music servers has highlighted a diff erence between traditional high-end dealers and custom installers. Ricardo believes the key is not the programming, it’s what happens to the signal after that.
“Installers use the product’s analogue or digital output; true high-end audiophiles recommended a good DAC,” Ricardo says.
Given that could spell thousands more on a system without anything more complicated than an extra cable and one more shelf in the rack, the audiophile dealers could be on to something here! He’s also championing giving the iPod a comfortable home in the high-end system, thanks to the Krell KID dock.
“If inputted properly, the iPod can deliver some very decent sounds” Ricardo says. “In a system up to even about £7,000 or so, it could be perceived as a main source. In very big systems, it makes a very good convenience source, too.”
That said, he’s keen to stress that even this has to be done right.
“I mean use the best lossless or uncompressed formats. Anything else makes a mockery of a good sound system.”
Ricardo recommends the freeware program MAX for Mac users and Exact Audio Copy for PCs and suggests storing in .WAV or .AIFF where possible, with Apple Lossless or FLAC as a last resort. It’s clear that music remains at the forefront of Ricardo’s lifestyle. He’s the fi rst to admit thathome cinema doesn’t move him quite as passionately as his first love.
“I respect it, but I don’t perceive it as engaging as the full musical experience you can get from owning a good sound system,” he admits. “Coming from a culture that was always music based, it’s difficult to make that jump.”
He also thinks two-channel still has a significant place in people’s hearts.
“Over the last 12 months or so, we’ve been getting a lot of people who just ask for ‘a bloody good sound system’. It’s something people really appreciate.”
Nevertheless, Ricardo has members on his team (such as sales director Pedro Jorge-Luis) who are equally passionate about cinema to recognise the products that work well in that particular market. He also thinks the home cinema and computer audio markets could learn a little from traditional audio.
“The formats are forever changing for different political and licensing reasons,” he says. “It makes it difficult to recommend in the long term. One the other hand, you could (for example) buy a DarTZeel stereo amplifier today and still be using it 20 years from now.”
Recently, Absolute Sounds has branched out with two ancillary companies within the group to cater for an even wider audience.
“Pistol Music is associated more with the value for money entry-level high end products,” Ricardo says. “It’s for people who haven’t reached the traditional level yet. Absolute Sounds itself has a portfolio of brands that have been proven by their sheer history and performance of the products. They are the brands that other brands aspire to one day.”
And what about ‘the Studio’, the other new arm of Absolute Sounds?
“The Studio is a very different, new venture,” Ricardo says, excitedly. “We’ve identified brands that have passed that ‘garden shed’ stage, but don’t yet have a place at the top table of high-end, with brands like Krell and Wilson Audio. They’ve already proven they have the quality, the consistency and have designers who boil over with passion. Not crazies, but passionate audiophiles with a scientific and engineering background.
“The Studio will be able to recommend a handful of products from different companies, because the sum of the components is greater than the part.”
In fact, the Studio will soon see a return to delivering a product long since dropped off the Absolute Sounds map; the high-end turntable.
“Apart from Koetsu cartridges, we left the analogue market about a decade ago,” Ricardo says, “Dealers and consumers asked us to come back though.”
So later this year, the Studio will distribute Continuum Audio Labs. So, if you have a client in the market for nigh-on 80 grand’s worth of turntable, you know where to go!
