Fairlight Looks To Divest Its Professional-Audio Technology

Fairlight, a pioneering developer of digital audio workstations, announced last week that it is actively seeking a buyer for its professional-audio–technology assets. In a statement, the Australia-based company said it is seeking to enter into discussions with “organizations that wish to leverage its professional-audio technologies to augment their offerings and enhance their competitive positions in this rapidly evolving market.”

Company officials are said to be optimistic about finding a buyer, given Fairlight’s presence in film and broadcast workflows globally and that its products are compliant with recent professional-audio–standards advances, including AES67.

Fairlight has a significant presence in audio postproduction, including broadcast sports. In 2012, NFL Films added five Fairlight EVO systems to its existing inventory of Fairlight Xynergi consoles at its Mount Laurel, NJ, facility, which maintains 16 audio-production suites. NFL Films uses EVO and Xynergi consoles to create content for the league’s weekly highlights, analysis shows, and documentaries.

The Spatial Automated Live Sports Audio (SALSA) solution exhibited by Fairlight and DTS at NAB 2016 is a real-time automated mixing process.

Other users of Fairlight’s audio platforms include WWE in Stamford, CT, and MLB Productions, in Secaucus, NJ, both deploying Constellation and Xynergi consoles.

Fairlight also announced progress in related technology developments, including one aimed at the nascent object-oriented audio area. At the NAB Show in April, Fairlight and DTS demonstrated the Spatial Automated Live Sports Audio (SALSA) solution, a real-time automated mixing process that identifies the location of specific sound events from a grid of pitch microphones, developed in collaboration with the University of Salford in the UK.

In its statement, Fairlight said the company will “focus its efforts on its patented picture key work-surface technology, which it licenses to manufacturers of highly user-interactive tactile equipment.”