Q&A: Michael De Negris, Autonomic
Autonomic’s Mirage Media Server is finally available in Australia. The company’s co-founder Michael De Negris speaks with Paul Skelton about how the company has thrived.
In April, cloud-based media solution manufacturer Autonomic Controls announced that it will be entering the Australian market, having appointed Advance Audio as its local distributor.
“The Mirage Media Server (MMS) provides the most seamless solution for our dealers, delivering streaming capabilities and locally stored music throughout the home,” Advance Audio general manager Adam Merlino says.
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“The Autonomic Mirage audio system combines the key features our customers want, such as cloud compatibility, easy interface with popular control system platforms and multi-zone amplifiers engineered to work with the MMS as a cohesive system. This is a complete solution that is right for our dealer base.”
Shortly after the announcement, Autonomic co-founder and chief executive Michael De Negris visited Australia. I had the opportunity to speak to him about the appointment, the MMS and the company’s new range of amplifiers and keypads.
Paul Skelton: So, how did Autonomic begin and why?
Michael De Negris: Autonomic was founded in 2006 by Michael Toscano and me. Back then, we were both working in the IT department of a large financial firm in the US – I was the director of application development and he was a programmer.
At that time, digital music was just starting to take off. I had an automation system in my home and one day I started to play around with Windows Media Centre, but there was no real way to control it within a custom environment.
After that, Michael and I started to get together on nights and weekends and we started to develop a control protocol for Windows Media Player and then Windows Media Centre and iTunes in an attempt to integrate those digital music sources into a custom environment.
Once we had a product to sell we started to offer it to custom integrators. The product has certainly evolved over the past seven years, but that control protocol is still at the heart of the control subsystem in our MMS.
PS: Why did you decide to move from being a software company to building your own hardware?
MDN: Quite early on in our evolution we realised that we had reached the saturation point of dealers who were willing to buy a computer and our software and install it in their customers’ homes. We figured that if we really wanted to penetrate the market, we had to offer a complete hardware solution. So we wrapped our technology in some hardware and that evolved into the MMS.
PS: How quickly did the market respond to your new control protocol and media server?
MDN: We got traction almost immediately through our OEM relationships. In the early years our primary revenue stream really came from licensing our technology to companies like Crestron, URC and NuVo Technologies.
In 2010, when we launched the MMS, we saw significant uptake in our direct-to-dealer business. Previously this channel was worth about 20% of our business. By the end of 2010 we had reached parity between our OEM and direct-to-dealer businesses.
Today, our primary revenue stream comes from our direct-to-dealer business.
PS: In September 2012, Autonomic released its first Mirage Digital Amplifiers. Why did you move into this new category?
MDN: It was an evolutionary process. Just as we had reached the saturation point with our software we reached a similar point with our MMS, so we introduced an amplifier to open us up to a new audience and our existing audience to new jobs.
Control is still our roots, so our amplifiers are completely IP controllable and have a very rich IP interface that is completely documented.
Once we realised that a standalone system was something that our dealers desperately wanted, we took a very close look at the existing multi-room amplifiers on the market and we took an inventory of what was missing from those products. Believe it or not, something as basic as IP control generally isn’t available in many of the multi-room amplifiers that are out there, so that was something we wanted to make sure we included.
We also looked at the typical power ratings of amplifiers and we found that in a four to eight room multi-room amplifier was a rating in the order of 15W to 20W. We built an amplifier that would go all the way up to 50W per channel and did some serious engineering to ensure that the sound quality remained pristine.
We also included digital coax inputs, which is very unusual and something you won’t find on most multi-room amplifiers. The MMS is capable of outputting 192kHz 24-bit audio, so having a clean audio path into our amplifiers, all the way through to the speaker outputs, was very important to us.
PS: Six months later, in March 2013, you released a range of keypads. In a market where most manufacturers are shifting from dedicated controllers to iOS or Android apps, why did you feel that an on-wall keypad was important?
MDN: Although we have outstanding iOS and Android applications, which are the preferred method of controlling our amplifiers because of the rich user interfaces, we felt that it was very important to give integrators the ability to put something on the wall. Even if it is a simple keypad.
We created two choices for integrators. The first is the KP1, which is a very basic keypad that sports an LED readout that shows the metadata of what’s playing on your media server. It gives end users access to source selection, volume and power from the wall.
For more advanced control, we considered engineering our own touch panel keypad, but we very quickly came to the conclusion that we weren’t going to be able to match the economies of scale offered by Apple. And we weren’t going to be able to design something as effective as our iPhone application that would remain within the budget of most home owners. So we partnered with iPort, which is a division of Sonance, to create a special version of their iPod in-wall dock.
PS: There are quite a few companies in this space that are trying to convert integrators into dealers. What is the opportunity that you are presenting to Australian integrators?
MDN: Our first entry into the market was designed to allow integrators to do a very quick retrofit. We have continued with this philosophy.
Most amplifiers that have been installed can very easily be replaced with one of our MMSs and you can install one of our keypads with as few as two wires. Realistically, you can be in and out of a property in a day and your customers are going to be thrilled because their home’s technology just leapt years beyond what they had.
That’s the biggest opportunity right now facing integrators – replacing all of those legacy audio systems – and we believe it’s something that we make possible.
PS: There’s no question that integrators are facing growing pressure from external influences, in particular the internet, which is making it easier for customers to purchase products themselves online at lower prices. What is Autonomic doing to protect installers’ interests?
MDN: Most importantly, we’re a protected line. You’re not going to find us for sale on the internet or in any department stores.
We started this business with a focus on the custom install channel and we remain that way today. A lot of our competitors, and even some of our partners, have made the mistake of trying to cast their net to wide and make their products available on the internet or through channels that are different to the installation channel.
We don’t and won’t do this. Price protection is too important to installers.
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