As I began putting thoughts down and mapping out my latest piece, it seemed quite obvious and fitting what I should be writing about. It is the week after Easter, my kids are home from school on spring break, and it just so happens to be the nicest weather we have seen in NJ since September, with temps in the upper 80’s! Oh, how I missed working with my office windows open! With all of that in mind, I think back to a topic I recently wrote which discussed “Anywhere Audio”, as I had coined it. In that piece, I discussed the varying types of portable and powered loudspeakers that seemed to blossom coming out of the pandemic as more people and activities were now outdoors. So, as I sit here mapping out my latest plan, I thought it was important to expand on that. The topic of outdoor audio is a lot more “wide encompassing” that even I thought and given that, I made the decision to “phone a friend” to discuss the topic even more. Allow me to introduce you all to Dave Tewksbury, Product and Applications Sales Support at Harman Pro Solutions. “Tewks”, as he is widely known around the industry, is not only a phenomenal resource and incredible friend to everyone who knows him, but he is also an accomplished singer and longtime audio enthusiast. Simply put, I learn something new every time we speak! So, with that, allow me to highlight our recent discussion around Harman and how they approach the Outdoor Audio Category.
To help set the stage for the conversation (pun intended!), Tewks recalled how he first got started in the world of Audio. I will be the first to admit that I always assumed he was a singer who specifically chose to work at Harman, but his background is far greater than that. As Tewks fondly recalled, he caught the “JBL Bug” as a young kid in Cincinnati. His sister, who was a performer at the time, had taken him to their local music shop called Buddy Rogers. The salesperson there had mentioned that JBL was one of the best they could get so that is where the discussion started. Given that this was long before the times of powered loudspeakers, they would also need an amplifier to which the salesperson said “if you are using JBL, you MUST use Crown. Those go hand in hand!”. That is how it all started. Since that day/interaction, Tewks has used nothing but JBL/Crown for all his audio needs which predates his employment at Harman. That would come later down the road after first working at an integrator who also happened to be a major Crown/JBL partner as well as a local rep that turned out to be a rep for Harman. The draw to these brands, outside of the name recognition, is that Tewks can emphasize these products have never steered him wrong. As an avid musician, he has never blown a speaker, replace a driver or other components, and as a musician funds can be limited at times, this history of quality is something he will firmly standby.
As we steered the discussion into the outdoor category, Tewks was generous enough to peel back the curtain just enough to highlight Harman’s philosophies on quality and the thought process that goes into creating speakers that not only sound great but can withstand the harshest of elements outdoors. When I think of what JBL does in the way of outdoor audio, it is quite impressive and expansive. We could also spend a lot of time discussing the IP ratings of speakers and why they matter. A speaker’s IP rating is generally 2 numbers that follow IP and each of those 2 numbers means something. The first number is what they call intrusion protection such as dust, debris etc. The second number is the moisture protection. Simply put, on a scale of 1-6, the higher the number the better the protection would be. So, if a loudspeaker was IP66, theoretically it would be totally protected against dust/debris and protected against strong jets of water such as on a cruise ship deck.