Around 20 representatives from 13 international distributors, from as far afield as China, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Greece, Turkey, France, Denmark and Nigeria, attended the summit, which, over the first two days, was held primarily in the idyllic surroundings of the Hotel & Conference Centre in the grounds of the ancient monastery of Món Sant Benet.
Following the welcoming of the guests by founder and CEO Juan Amate, day one saw corporate presentations by vice president and chief technical officer Joan Amate, focusing on the strategic thinking behind the company's rebranding as Amate Audio, and setting out the product and technologies development roadmap for the remainder of 2015 and throughout 2016.
In his presentation, Now We Are Amate Audio, Joan Amate explained the rationale behind the rebranding, stating that over time, as the company had expanded its distribution into more territories, it had increasingly come into contact with competing businesses whose identities were too readily confused with the Master Audio brand. In a move planned over a number of years, the company announced a "brand transition" at the end of last year, designed to protect the investment, over the years, of Amate and its distributor partners in the Master Audio brand, while introducing the new Amate Audio brand; representative of the company's heritage, in its origins and the Amate family name.
Day two began with an introductory speech by Juan Amate followed by product presentations, the first by chief acoustic engineer Natàlia Milan, who outlined new product additions and a complete range enhancement for Xcellence series; Amate Audio's premium performance series. Natàlia described how the latest advances in amplifier module performance and improved driver designs, being incorporated into the series, had instigated the recalculation of optimal cabinet litreage across the range. This has resulted in improvements in performance and reductions in size and weight of up to 20%. New models being introduced into the Xcellence series will feature all new driver technology.
Joan Amate detailed performance improvements across the Joker series dedicated installation range, resulting from the introduction of improved integral DSP; including peak and RMS limiting and input overload detection and indication, as well as improved Eco mode power operation. Joan then introduced a new digital incarnation of the company's successful Triphonic power amplifier series. The new TDP digital model is scheduled for launch in November this year.
The product presentations were followed by a coach trip through the Catalan mountains - passing the spectacular multi-peaked Montserrat mountain range - on route to lunch and listening tests at a traditional hillside terrace restaurant. Here the guests were able see and to listen to many of the new products introduced in the earlier presentations, in the open air, on a beautiful sunny day, without any concern for SPLs.
The day concluded with a gala dinner for the guests and Amate Audio's employees, featuring fine cuisine and live entertainment. Day three featured a tour of Amate Audio's locally based manufacturing and R&D centre, before the distributors departed for their home countries.
Commenting on the success of the event, Joan Amate said, "It was great to have the opportunity to share information about our forthcoming projects with our distributors, and a unique opportunity to gather comment and feedback in preparing our launch campaigns. It was a great pleasure for us to welcome s
