Lenbrook Media Group Formed Taking MQA & SCL6 Forward

The Lenbrook Group of Companies, which covers renowned brands, including NAD Electronics, PSB Speakers, Bluesound and the BluOS multiroom platform, has created a new business unit to oversee the growth of the MQA and SCL6 technologies it acquired in September.

Dubbed Lenbrook Media Group, the new entity is being overseen by former MQA CEO Mike Jbara, who, in his newly appointed role as vice president and general manager, is charged with developing the portfolio's content management solutions and "pursue new opportunities that fit Lenbrook's vision to offer increased choice to music fans and enthusiasts for quality audio".

Mike Jbara told StereoNET:

Once you combine Lenbrook's vision for advancing choice and innovation in the performance audio industry with the assembly of some of the best minds in audio hardware and software engineering, it results in a substantive opportunity to empower creators, distributors, fans, and broadcasters in addition to hardware manufacturers. It is an exciting list of possibilities that we believe will benefit both the music and the specialty audio industries.

Lenbrook Media Group states that the BluOS content management platform remains very much at its core. Still, as this is the first announcement from the new group since saving MQA from administration, the feeling is that both MQA and SCL6 codecs will be utilised in upcoming hi-res audio hardware and software solutions.

Both codecs were designed to deliver high-quality wireless music streaming. MQA is a hi-res audio packaging and delivery codec currently used for hi-res streams on TIDAL alongside the service's new FLAC library. Meanwhile, SCL6 (aka MQAir) is an adaptive hi-res audio codec ideal for wireless and mobile applications.

This also aligns nicely with the hi-res, PSB-branded wireless headphones we are already waiting to see this year, resulting from a collaboration between PSB, MQA technologies and smart-hearables start-up firm Sonical. Moreover, we expect this to be the first of similarly-equipped products to be announced over the following twelve months or so.

Gordon Simmonds, president and CEO of The Lenbrook Group of Companies, says that the acquisition of MQA complements BluOS in supporting "creators in the recording studio with capturing and delivering directly and in the highest quality, their art into the homes of music lovers". He adds, "Creating the Lenbrook Media Group allows us to fully capitalise on this unique position by giving it focus and putting the right strategies, structure, and resources in place,"

Mike Jbara and Lenbrook Media Group colleague Andy Dowell, Head of Licensing, will attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 9-12, 2024, and will be taking appointments to discuss licensing, integration, and other opportunities.