The power of the pad: Free mobile app knocks £3k off cost of Meridian Audio system
Meridian Audio, the developer of high end home audio and video equipment with prices that make your ears pop, has effectively slashed about £3k off the cost of a new system by releasing a free iPad app.
Instead of sorting by track or artist, the app recreates the graphical interface of Meridian’s Core Control system which assists users to select tracks in a similar way to the iTunes cover flow system.
We’ve seen this cover before. In 2008 Meridian Audio made its break for the high-end multimedia market through the acquisition of US company Sooloos LLC, the innovative media-server manufacturer.
It gave the Huntingdon manufacturer of some of the world's finest digital audio and video systems an entry point into a market it had so far been unable to fully grasp.
Acquired for an undisclosed amount, the New York-based firm had developed an intuitive touchscreen interface with incredible simplicity of use that allowed users to interact with up a terabyte of CD and MP3 audio collections.
The ‘low-end’ version retailed at over £5,000 but with the creation of the Core Control app, Meridian hopes to entice a broader consumer base who own iPads to purchase the company’s £2,000 device and use the app for music selection rather than an expensive touch in built touch screen.
“The new Core Control App for iPad gives Meridian Digital Media System customers full use of the system’s cover browser interface and unique Focus and Swim features that were previously only available through fixed control products like Control 15,” said Roland Morcom, director of business and development at Meridian.
“Enabling our unique and award winning interface on a portable, wireless device like the iPad makes system control more flexible for all our customers and helps significantly reduce the cost of a fully featured system from almost £5000 to only £2000.”
Meridian may not be a household name, but its place in the history of home audio is cemented. In 1983 it launched the first CD player to be made in Britain, the MCD, which received awards for the best-sounding CD player in seven of the world’s leading consumer electronic buying countries including Japan and the US.
Through the 1980s, Meridian continued to advance its audio capabilities, pushing into the whole range of domestic hi-fi and becoming the first design team to win Design Council Award’s on three occasions.
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