Many businesses and institutions in India are looking to invest in better conferencing solutions and wireless audio has a bright future, feels German audio firm Sennheiser.

With the exceptional growth of the smartphone segment and an increase in the number of corporate offices, India is a great country for audio firms to expand their business. Consumers are always looking for better sound, the demand for in-ear and over-the-ear headphones is bound to grow. In the corporate sector, there is a constant need for better conferencing solutions.

Renowned German audio brand Sennheiser is among the few top companies looking to establish their brand in India. Sennheiser has been in India for six years and is looking to strengthen its base in the Asia-Pacific region, with India being a major part of its plans.

India has the fastest growing professional audio-visual market in the Asia-Pacific region, with a compound annual growth rate of 25%, says market researcher InfoCom. Sennheiser?s annual revenue was around 531 million euros in 2011, of which the Asia-Pacific region accounts for just 73 million euros.

Peter Callan, Sennheiser?s head of consumer audio, says: ?We are in the early stages of regionalisation in India and the Asia-Pacific. We strengthened our base first in Europe, then the US and now we are looking to expand here. We are continually visiting markets in Asia to understand what consumers want. We always think about long-term success as opposed to riding a short-term wave. We won?t crank up the bass in our headphones because it?s the latest trend, but we constantly work on delivering natural sound to consumers.?

In the professional audio market, many businesses and institutions are looking to invest in better integrated systems such as speakers for conferencing and audio playback, hand-held devices used as tour guides, microphones etc. Traditionally, these products have had complicated installation processes that involves managing cable clutter. Sennheiser, a leading player in India, is looking to change that with wireless speakers that can be configured easily?using an iPad. LSP 500 speakers have been launched in the US and will be available in India soon.

Sennheiser?s global president of integrated systems, Peter Claussen, says: ?We focus on ease of use, invisibility and total cost of ownership. The LSP 500 can be installed and configured easily, and can be completely

invisible because they are wireless speakers. Since our products are in the premium range, the initial cost will be higher than those of our competitors? offerings. But the total cost of ownership, which includes long-term maintenance costs, is low.?

The company also introduced water-proof wireless speakers for outdoor use ?common for monuments and open-air auditoriums. Sennheiser?s guide PORT handheld devices that give tours an audio guided tour have been installed in Qutub Minar, New Delhi Railway Museum, Gandhi Research Foundation in Jalgaon, among other places.

?For conferencing systems, automatic voice recognition is under trial in our research centre in San Francisco, US. We are also working on online translation over the Web, which will be useful for a global video conference,? says Claussen.

In the consumer segment, the wireless audio market is not growing as fast as it could due to conflicting standards. Peter Callan says it isn?t clear which technology will be dominant in the future. Bluetooth is the most common, but among competing wireless technologies are DLNA and Apple?s AirPlay.

Callan says, ?Wireless audio hasn?t fully taken off yet. We need to educate customers about the advantages of wireless headphones. For instance, if you?re watching a late-night match on TV, wireless headphones let you enjoy the game without disturbing family members. Having said that, I must point out that we don?t see wireless as a replacement for wired headphones. They will continue to co-exist.?