Sennheiser India organised a three-city industry connect programme to provide an early opportunity for Indian AV fraternity to experience the latest addition to its Spectera ecosystem- the SKM handheld transmitter, besides the TCC M Plus innovation. Attended by a sizable partner community as well as systems integrators and consultants, the event generated an energizing buzz about the technology brilliance and ease of reliable deployment.
The event began at Bengaluru on 12 August, and followed by Mumbai on 17 August, and Delhi on 19 August.
The morning session focussed on introduction of the Spectera to Sennheiser’s channel partners of from the domains of education, government, and corporate segments. The programme included live demo of Spectera set-up and TCC M Plus functioning. It also had a lucky draw, as an additional engagement of the partner community.
The evening session was more of a Meet and Greet with key decision makers from the integration and consulting fraternity, that also had a shorter version of the morning session.
SIAsia caught up with Naveen Sridhara, Sales Director, Sennheiser India to know what the programme is significant for. Excerpts:
SIASIA: Both the product lines, we reckon, have been launched earlier on a global scale. TCC M Plus at InfoComm Vegas in June this year, and Spectera even earlier. So, can we mean to say that these two product lines are being brought to India for the first time? Or how?
NAVEEN SRIDHARA: Both TCC M Plus and Spectera have already been introduced globally, so this was not the first time we showcased Spectera in India. We have previously brought Spectera to the Indian AV community, including through our presence at PALM Expo.
What was particularly exciting about these events was the opportunity to showcase the latest addition to the Spectera ecosystem, the SKM handheld transmitter. While the SKM is scheduled to ship in Q4 this year, these events provided an early opportunity for Indian customers, partners and AV professionals to experience the new handheld solution and understand how it expands the Spectera ecosystem.
Importantly, these three events were particularly focused on the corporate and higher education markets, where many potential users had not yet had access to Spectera and were waiting for the handheld transmitters to become available. The introduction of the SKM therefore generated significant interest among these audiences, as it expands the range of applications where Spectera can be used.
For TCC M Plus, the events also provided an opportunity to bring one of our newest TeamConnect solutions to the Indian market following its global debut at InfoComm Las Vegas. Rather than being a first global launch, the focus was on bringing these latest innovations to the Indian AV community and giving customers and partners an opportunity to experience them firsthand.
SIAsia: Knowing the expertise and competence that Sennheiser has amongst its ranks, and also the demanding level of the Indian AV segment, how are these product lines going to impact the Indian AV industry?
NAVEEN SRIDHARA: The Indian AV industry is increasingly looking for solutions that combine high performance with simpler deployment and management. TCC M Plus addresses this through dynamic beamforming and enhanced exclusion zones for intelligent audio pickup, single-cable connectivity for simplified installation, PartnerLink integration with Q-SYS for streamlined system integration, and DeviceHub for cloud-based management, monitoring and diagnostics.
Spectera, the world’s first wideband, bidirectional wireless ecosystem, brings a fundamentally new level of flexibility to professional wireless. It can support up to 64 channels from a single base station, while its WMAS technology significantly simplifies frequency coordination and enables scalable, flexible workflows.
Together, these solutions address two important needs in the Indian AV market: making sophisticated systems easier to deploy and manage, while providing the scalability and flexibility required by increasingly complex AV environments.
SIASIA: Considering Indian AV’s distinctive status vis-à-vis other market geographies, do these product lines come under Sennheiser Sound Academy to train/certify Sennheiser’s channel partners or SI/consulting community professionals?
NAVEEN SRIDHARA: As with all our new products, dedicated e-learning modules are introduced through the Sennheiser Sound Academy to provide our channel partners with the necessary product and technical training. Beyond the online modules, we also conduct face-to-face training sessions to provide more in-depth, practical knowledge and hands-on experience.
For technologies such as TCC M Plus and Spectera, this combination of online and in-person training is particularly important, as it enables our partners to build both the product knowledge and practical expertise needed to design, deploy and support these solutions effectively.
SIASIA: Does the first session of the event have this kind of orientation in hands-on practice?
NAVEEN SRIDHARA: Yes. The event included live product demonstrations, giving attendees the opportunity to see the capabilities of TCC M Plus and Spectera in action and understand how the solutions work in real-world applications.
The live demonstrations also provided an opportunity to showcase the new Spectera SKM handheld transmitter, which is scheduled to ship in Q4 this year. This gave the Indian AV community an early opportunity to experience one of the latest additions to the Spectera ecosystem before it becomes commercially available.
SIASIA: Apart from government, corporate, and education segments, what other domains are these systems targeted at, or can they go?
NAVEEN SRIDHARA: The potential applications are quite broad. For TCC M Plus, beyond corporate, government and education environments, we see opportunities across hospitality, healthcare, financial services, public spaces and other environments where high-quality and intelligent audio is important to the user experience.
Spectera has an equally broad professional application base. Beyond corporate and education, it can serve live sound, theatre, broadcast, houses of worship, touring productions, rental and staging, and other demanding professional audio environments.
The introduction of the SKM handheld transmitter further expands the possibilities for Spectera, particularly in applications where handheld microphones are an integral part of the production workflow.
SIASIA: What specific takeaways for Sennheiser from this initiative?
NAVEEN SRIDHARA: I would emphasise that the event was not simply about presenting two new products. It was about giving the Indian AV community an opportunity to see where professional audio technology is heading and to experience some of these developments firsthand.
With TCC M Plus, we are continuing to evolve our approach to intelligent audio for collaboration spaces. With Spectera, we are introducing a fundamentally new approach to professional wireless, and the upcoming SKM handheld transmitter is an important addition to that ecosystem.
India is a market where we see strong appetite for advanced AV technologies, so our focus is on bringing these innovations to the market while also working closely with our partners, consultants and customers to build the expertise and ecosystem around them.
