Electrosonic Acquires AME

Electrosonic Systems Inc. has acquired Associates in Media Engineering (AME), a systems design company based in Glendale, CA. With the acquisition, Electrosonic, an established design/build company, extends it services to include design consultation and media processing and management services.

According to Kyle Carpenter, CEO of the Electrosonic Group, AME’s design and studio teams are relocating to Electrosonic’s Burbank office. “AME has a very experienced, highly respected staff,” he says. “They complement Electrosonic’s strengths and give us solid, expanded capabilities, allowing us to serve clients from the conceptual stages right through maintenance and service.”

“Electrosonic is a company with a great reputation for quality and for attracting the best engineering/design talent in the industry,” says Benjamin Lein, AME’s founding principal. “That was very attractive to us. While Electrosonic was interested in offering more design work, we were looking to expand into the design/build end of the business. Our joining forces couldn't have come at a more opportune time."

Lein, along with the entire AME staff, join Electrosonic to establish two new divisions. Electrosonic Design will provide upper tier, turnkey design-engineering services to the themed entertainment, museum, and architecture disciplines. Electrosonic Studio Services will provide digital media services, including standard and high- definition compression and encoding, media management, audio encoding, etc.

Jim Bowie, General Manager of Electrosonic’s North American Systems Business, comments that, “in the past we have offered our design and AV consulting expertise primarily as part of a build package. We are now formally offering design as a product and we are confident in our ability to deliver high quality design-only packages. Electrosonic will continue to offer Design/Build services to our customers, and to use our engineering expertise and our increased design capabilities in complementary ways, depending upon the needs of the customer. Because we understand the true reality of the installation environment and where the hidden costs are, our design will reflect the expertise we are known for as engineers and project managers.

The addition of AME’s studio team gives Electrosonic video and audio processing and management services, such as HD and SD compression and encoding, audio encoding, format conversion, DVD authoring, and media management and distribution, says Bowie. “We will be offering these services on both coasts, at our Burbank office and through Scharff Weisberg Media Resource Center (MRC) in New York City. But let me be clear, these services support already produced content. Electrosonic is not a content creator or producer.”

In January, Electrosonic signed a joint venture agreement with Scharff Weisberg Systems Integration Inc. creating Electrosonic New York, which operates out of Long Island City, NY. The new company now provides New York-area architects, designers, consultants and builders with unsurpassed AV design and installation support from a local source.