Foothill Ranch, CA [April 2009] – April 1 at Pro Light+Sound marks an exceptional anniversary for Renkus-Heinz – 30 years to the day since its foundation. The family owned company also celebrates the ‘live’ European launch of the IC Live digitally steerable live sound array.

Renkus-Heinz was founded in California on April 1 1979 with the stated intent to “contribute to a better sounding world…one sound system at a time”. Since then the company has gone on to pioneer a host of new technologies – many winning US patents. “We set out with the principles of innovative, quality-first audio design,” says founder and President Harro Heinz, “and are proud to say that we have held firm to those ideals, in aiming to create unique solutions to day-to-day acoustical challenges.”

The company’s latest technology, ICONYX, allows world class auditoria from Wexford Opera House to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center to offer precision sound at every seat in the house without large PA hangs. Along with this year’s other newcomers, the IC Live digitally steerable array portable systems and VLX3 lightweight, high power line array, it’s in a long line of engineering ‘firsts’, including RHAON (Renkus-Heinz Audio Operations Network), Complex Conic horn topology, CoEntrant Topology, TRue Array Principle (TRAP) pre-engineered point-source clusters and the industry’s first loudspeakers (ST Series) to offer CobraNet® as a built-in option. “Each discovery opens new avenues for investigation, fresh opportunities for improvement,” adds Harro Heinz. “After 30 years of advancing sound and providing solutions, that’s why the real excitement is still a work in progress.”


BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Renkus-Heinz was founded on April 1st 1979 by electronics engineers Harro Heinz and Jonus Renkus in Irvine, Southern California. The company soon established a name for itself as a manufacturer of high frequency drivers, horns, speaker cluster designs and amplifiers to other manufacturers. After Jonus Renkus’s departure Harro Heinz retained both the name and the goal of consistently driving up the standard of loudspeaker system performance.

In the early 1990s Renkus-Heinz introduced the world’s most successful implementation of the manifold principle in loudspeaker design – CoEntrant Topology, producing more SPL with greater clarity from smaller boxes than any other in the industry.

In 2000, the company relocated to a new, purpose-built, 50,000 square feet factory in Foothill Ranch, California, marking a major step in its history and, led by Sr. Vice President of R&D, Ralph Heinz, focused on a new wave of technologies including a line array based on the Isophasic Wave Generator, CobraNet® connectivity and many other innovations.

Among the audio technologies pioneered by Renkus-Heinz are:

• CoEntrant Topology - Integrates multiple drivers into a single mid/high point source/horn combination. CoEntrant loudspeakers deliver higher output, wider bandwidth and more consistent coverage from more compact enclosures.

• Complex Conic Topology - Designed around the spherical expansion of the acoustic pressure wave, Complex Conic horns provide constant beamwidth/directivity without the problems of conventional horns. This first truly new approach to horn design in over 20 years, Complex Conic Topology results in audible accurate pattern control, lower distortion and minimal coloration.

• TRue Array Principle (TRAP) - TRAP systems provide a single source of sound even in large arrays. That's because we redesigned the horns and enclosures to align the acoustic centers. This in turn practically eliminates interference, producing a phase aligned wavefront with uniform frequency response across the coverage area.

• Reference Point Arrays (RPA) - Combine the advantages of our TRAP (True Array enclosures) with sophisticated signal processing in order to achieve truly coherent arraying with minimal lobing and consistent frequency response throughput the array coverage. • CobraNet® - The Renkus-Heinz ST/STX Series was the world’s first professional loudspeaker range to offer optional CobraNet connectivity.

• R-Control – Providing full remote loudspeaker monitoring and control.