Live Design: Company In Focus
Live Design: Company In Focus: 1 SOUND
Lou Mannarino has spent a life in music. He has had professional success as a musician, conductor, teacher, sound engineer, and entrepreneur, who is now focusing his skills as the founder and designer for 1 SOUND.
Live Design talked to him about 1 SOUND, his New Jersey-based loudspeaker manufacturer.
Live Design: Can you tell us a little about the history of 1 SOUND?
Lou Mannarino: 1 SOUND is the culmination of my life’s work as an professional audio engineer, installer, and musician. I was motivated to start 1 SOUND to build my new designs in the United States and make available speakers which are not currently available from anyone else on the market today. The idea of 1 SOUND is to provide additional solutions for the commercial audio industry. The USA is one of the biggest markets in the audio industry, and being based here enables us to take a hands-on approach with building and stocking, as well as providing individualized customer support.
It was also important to let buyers know that they can get their custom needs met and be able to have a voice in what they can provide to their clients. The result is premium audio products built with care in the US for the commercial industry.
Live Design: How did 1 SOUND survive the pandemic?
I started 1 SOUND in 2019 and immediately after the pandemic hit. I took that time and used it as an opportunity. We were able to move into a bigger warehouse, and build a beautiful manufacturing studio and showroom. During that time we focused on investing in inventory and build, so as a brand new company 2020 actually worked to our advantage as we started off slow but set ourselves up for scalability. Flash forward to two years later and you see the benefits of how we handled business during that time.
LD: As a sound engineer, what were you looking for that the market couldn’t provide and you felt you had to develop yourself?
LM: One of my first motivations came when I was an audio engineer at the New York Philharmonic. I wanted a front fill loudspeaker that was immersive and that clearly represented a mono plus stereo recording or a left/right feed. The result was 1 SOUND's Panorama MS34 loudspeaker.
The second motivation was to design and build a cardioid line column that was controllable on two channels as well as having a low frequency extension, with superior high end and less distortion.
These motivations became the first loudspeakers in the 1 SOUND catalog.
LD: You tested out some of 1 SOUND's speakers at the New York Philharmonic. Was this the ultimate testing ground? Were any adjustments made based on this try out?
LM: Sure... There are always adjustments to be made to loudspeakers because in loudspeaker design, the goal is stated, but the result of the product is always compromises, simply based on our relationship with physics. How we overcome these things is by building from the ground up with premium materials. If we're creating a new speaker element, we work to find premium materials that make a difference in how we design our loudspeakers. So, with the Philharmonic for example, it was something that needed to be more high definition than the average commercial audio loudspeaker.
The instrumentalists noticed the difference immediately, in the way the loudspeakers sounded, as well as the Panorama, which was a clear indication of mono plus stereo and being a three-way loudspeaker.
LD: Which of your products are you currently most excited about and why?
LM: I'm always the most excited about what I'm developing at the current moment… I think that is just natural. I'd like to think of them as songs, (hopefully hit songs). And.. I'm very proud of the catalog. It's a result of 40 years of experience of installation design and engineering. So it's a process. We average a year and a half to two years to develop a single product, because of the amount of time and care we put in. So, yeah, it's always the current product that's on the drawing board.
LD: You can customize your gear, what options are available?
LM: We want our customers to hit a home run on their jobs and we know a pain point for them can often be when it comes to their client and seeing a speaker. The mesh fabric incorporated into our speaker design allows for the grille to be different colors. We have stocked 12 colored fabrics so customers can have the choice for colored grilles and it won't take any additional time on the order. Customers can also choose custom colors for the cabinets. Natural wood-stained loudspeakers seem to be popular.
LD: Are you working to expand into different market segments?
LM: We started in the installation market, most audio designers and companies start in the touring market. My motivation was to not make something that already existed. From a business perspective, it might have been a bit risky to make something new for people to understand, but the purpose of the company is to build new tools, with premium materials, with better designs, and with more thoughtful ways to integrate them in order to make our dealers rockstars with their customers.
So, we will stay in the installation and production market!
LD: What do you have in development?
LM: We are going to be developing new software with more functionality to better assist the average installer to be better at what they do.
I also feel like I have a lot of songs in the hopper and I am trying to line them all up, for the next decade. So… there's a lot I have to do.
LD: Do you think the pandemic has changed how entertainment venues view audio systems?
LM: Performance venues haven't been able to upscale because they can't, they are still trying to recover. I think the most energy is being put into venues that can be flexible. So an eating establishment, becomes a lounge, and then past a certain hour the lounge becomes a dance club. People have also invested more in outdoor venues. So if there's any venue that's going to change, it's in the areas of outdoor entertainment venues.
LD: You have an international sales team, how are your products received abroad?
LM: The initial launch was quite exciting, people are very receptive to premium products made in America, but there are of course challenges with respect to shipping. We are still discovering the challenges and we’re dealing with them.
LD: How does your first company, L&M Light and Sound fit in?
LM: L&M Sound and Light is the production company that I started when I was a teenager, before I had a 40-year career as an audio engineer. It was the vehicle for experience that led me into creating my own loudspeaker designs and starting 1 SOUND. L&M Sound and Light is still around today and run by my two sons.
Published by Live Design Online, https://www.livedesignonline.com/sound/company-focus-1-sound