Dana, AmbiSonic Enter Sales, Marketing Agreement

By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 9/8/2010

 San Clemente, Calif. - Dana Innovations entered into an agreement with outdoor-speaker supplier AmbiSonic Systems to take over worldwide sales, marketing and order-fulfillment responsibilities for AmbiSonic Systems' landscape speakers under Dana's Sonance brand.

AmbiSonic System's outdoor speakers include underground subwoofers and satellites that look like landscape lights.

The agreement takes effect in October, said Dana, which is also the parent of iPort and Trufig.

AmbiSonic offers SoniScape-series outdoor residential and commercial speakers that look like aimable outdoor accent lights. They can be mounted in the ground or on trees for an unobtrusive look. SoniScape subs use an underground enclosure that vents above ground through a tube topped by a copper canopy. At this month's CEDIA Expo, Sonance indicated that it will show a next-generation AmbiSonics line.

AmbiSonic Systems, based in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., showed its first outdoor speakers at last year's CEDIA Expo. The company was founded by Jeff Coombs, a 40-year audio-industry veteran who previously owned James Loudspeaker.

 Dana is entering the "strategic partnership" because in-ground subwoofers and small satellite speakers placed in the landscape and in trees to become visually unobtrusive "provide performance and coverage superior to those of traditional outdoor speakers and have become a high-growth segment for the custom installation industry," the company said. The AmbiSonic Systems line, added Dana CEO Ari Supran, "is a natural fit within our Sonance product portfolio in aesthetics, quality and performance."

  The agreement isn't Dana's first marketing alliance with another company. Two years ago, Dana's Sonance brand entered into a distribution agreement with Italian speaker maker NacSound to distribute NacSound's high-performance designer speakers in the U.S. and Canada.