Lenbrook added MQA and SCL6 audio codecs, along with a host of patents, after acquiring the assets of MQA, the high-res audio encoding specialist that had gone into administration.
Gordon Simmonds, chief executive officer of Lenbrook, said: “We view this acquisition as an opportunity to ensure the technologies developed by the scientists and engineers at MQA continue to serve the industry’s interests rather than be confined to any single brand or company.”
George Massenberg, Grammy winning producer and recording engineer, added his voice to those that support the move and said: “I’m so relieved that MQA and SCL6 will continue under Lenbrook. MQA's technology, with its faithful rendering of detail, complexity, and sound stage, gave us the reason to go back into the recording studio and reverse a 20-year decline in the quality of audio delivery methods.”
Founded from the insights and support of record industry executives, recording artists, and audio engineering experts, MQA sought to provide creators with the means to efficiently preserve the detail and nuance of their works in high resolution recorded formats, which at the time pushed directly against the trend toward heavily compressed music.
“I’m delighted that MQA will continue in good hands with Lenbrook,” added Morten Lindberg, Grammy-nominated Master Engineer at 2L. “For 2L, using MQA has allowed us to enhance the experience of our recordings, beyond the raw capture, with increased access to sonic details, transparency and lower listening fatigue.”
“MQA is the only technology that considers the entire audio signal chain, from studio to listening room, to assure consistent quality of reproduction. The patents and research that underlie MQA represent significant contributions to digital audio quality due to their focus on time domain issues that have not been well understood until recently,” said Greg Stidsen, chief technology officer of Lenbrook.
MQA had amassed more than 120 licensees and several content partnerships and Lenbrook said it wanted the acquisition to provide certainty for business and technical developments that were underway prior to MQA’s administration. As a result, Lenbrook retained a core group of engineers and developers and sales and marketing personnel including Andy Dowell, previously the head of licensing for MQA, who will continue to lead business development activities.
Top image credit: MJgraphics/Shutterstock.com