Swedish brand Audio Pro looks at India to find a market for premium multi-room wireless speakers

Multi-room sound systems cater to those users who want to play the same music in several rooms at the same time. (Anuj Bhatia / Express photo)

“We want to make electronics fashionable,” Henriksen told indianexpress.com in an interview. “If you want to buy more than one speaker for your home, you would potentially look for speakers that don’t have to look the same because, in a normal house or flat, you don’t have the same furniture in all your rooms…so why would you have the same design on speakers,” he explained.

Henriksen, who previously handled global sales for Zound Industries, the Swedish company that now owns the legendary Marshall brand, says the rise of streaming music services such as Spotify has helped widen the appeal of Wi-Fi-based wireless speakers which comes with the ability to play sound anywhere. With no learning curve needed to set up the speakers, thanks to native support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi that lets users control sound systems from their smartphone or tablet, the experience has become more user-friendly. Unlike huge surround sound speakers, multi-room systems are also designed to work together as an integrated system, which can be moved easily from one room to another.

Unlike huge surround sound speakers, multi-room systems are also designed to work together as an integrated system, which can be moved easily from one room to another. (Anuj Bhatia / Express photo)

Henriksen compared multi-room wireless speaker systems to how headphones introduced consumers to experience music in a totally different way. “We are not trying to tell people what they should do, we want to follow the new way of consuming music.”
Audio Pro currently offers a range of products in India, which are priced anywhere between Rs 36,150 and Rs 1,87,490. For example, the Scandi-inspired Audio Pro A15 wireless portable speaker, available for Rs 57,800, sports a fabric-covered front and offers three different multi-room systems including Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast and Audio Pro’s multi-room wireless protocol. Audio Pro has tied up with Alphatec for the distribution of its speakers in India.

Henriksen’s brand is targeting the premium audio segment with its current portfolio, although some of its products do fall in the audiophile category, like the Audio Pro A48 which are a large pair of floor-standing speakers. “We are not in the super expensive segment, which we will probably never be because we think that segment will become smaller over the years.” He added: “If you look at the segment that actually sees the mobile phone as their primary device for transferring music, then I think that we will be able to satisfy 80 to 90% of the potential buyer group simply because our sound is good enough.”

Audio Pro has tied up with Alphatec for the distribution of its speakers in India. (Anuj Bhatia / Express photo)

A lot of people think multi-room wireless speaker systems are priced on the higher side – and that’s a valid viewpoint if you don’t consider what multi-room systems bring to the table or how they are different from affordable Bluetooth and smart speakers flooding the market. “When you buy speakers, you actually tend to keep them for quite a long time and that means you are ready to invest a little bit more in speakers,” Henriksen defends why wireless speaker systems are priced the way they are.

Henriksen, who considers Sonos the biggest competitor to Audio Pro, says the demand for multi-room wireless speaker systems is growing not just in mature markets like Europe but also in developing markets such as India and Indonesia. “We try to develop products that as many as people can buy, but still want to deliver a good sound and good build quality.”