Commitment to quality and innovation is in the Axis DNA. We aren’t just proud of what we make. We’re proud of how we do it. We believe that those two things – the what and the how – can’t be separated.
Axis may be best known as the company that introduced network video to the world, soon adding a long list of other groundbreaking video tools and technologies. But if you look at our rapidly growing, award-winning network audio portfolio, you’ll find that our commitment to innovation and excellence isn’t just a story about network video. It’s a story about Axis.
When we started looking to include network audio in our portfolio, quality wasn’t just a goal. It was an expectation. We were already well-known for the performance, flexibility, reliability, and cybersecurity of our cameras. We wanted to bring those same benefits to audio – and, at the same time, exceed expectations for clear, understandable sound.
Let’s take a look at how we’ve done that, starting with the basics of traditional vs. network audio.
Understanding analog
In an analog audio system, sound information is converted to electrical signals early via a central point. The more steps these electrical signals have to pass through, or the longer they must travel, the more the voltage drops and needs to be amplified. That process increases noise and lowers the quality of the output audio. That’s why ensuring good sound for an analog system, especially in large or complex installations, can be a challenging process requiring not just speakers, but a mixing console, equalizers, compressors, amplifiers, and more – and a sound engineer to set up and configure it all.
The digital difference
Axis network audio systems are different. First, digital audio doesn’t use varying voltage. Instead, numerical values describe the waveform. These values can then be stored and transmitted without changing, even in areas of electromagnetic disturbance and over long distances. Unlike in analog systems, these values are only converted to electrical signals at the endpoint, which protects them from interference. Plus, there’s no need for a control room, since all the equipment required for high-quality audio is built into the speaker. And with pre-configured sound and digital sound processing, these smart systems are easy to get up and running without an audio engineer.
The result? Greater flexibility and consistently good sound. But there are a lot of pieces that need to be in place for that to happen.
Defining audio quality
Making a quality network audio system demands close attention to a number of metrics that impact users, including ease of use, robustness, longevity, dependability, and cybersecurity. But for listeners, quality really comes down to one thing: How does it sound?
Speaker design and configuration have big roles here, but so does the context where the speaker will be used. For example, an indoor speaker in an airport terminal has to compete with a lot of background noise to get out clear voice messages, while an outdoor speaker has to grab people’s attention and broadcast critical instructions clearly across a large area. And so, when our engineers set the parameters that define quality for our different speakers, we keep that context in mind. We listen to our customers so we can understand their needs and realities. For example, will the speaker be primarily used for public address or music? How far will sound need to travel to get to the listeners? What’s the acoustic environment?
An eye on the big picture
Next, we start translating that understanding into speaker design. We handle the entire development process in-house, with our own engineers – a choice we make because the specific details of each component can affect the performance of other components, as well as the overall sound. The characteristics of the driver make a difference. So do the form factor, the chassis material, the sound pressure, the software-enabled sound characteristics, even the specific curve of the speaker’s corners.
With each speaker we make, the software and hardware are designed to complement each other, so we can deliver the best sound for where and how the speaker will be used. So, although we have a hardware design fairly early in the process, we continue to fine-tune that design, along with the software, until they’re making the most of each other.
And, of course, we never lose sight of the other markers of quality Axis is known for: smart and intuitive design, robustness and reliability, power efficiency, and cybersecurity.
Our partners in excellence
Maintaining the highest standards is only possible when the entire supply chain reflects the same commitment to quality, so we choose suppliers carefully and develop deep, collaborative relationships with them. For our speaker drivers, we’ve selected suppliers who are able to custom build the driver for each new speaker model according to our specifications. This key component requires partners we can trust to deliver the required sound pressure, the sound frequencies we want to optimize for, and the expected sound dispersion for the environment, while upholding our long-standing reliability and efficiency standards.
Testing and certification – not just a last step
Our testing process is iterative and comprehensive, targeted at both sound quality and hardware quality. To fine-tune and finalize our design from a sound quality perspective, we rely on both objective acoustic measurements in our state-of-the-art R&D labs in Sweden, as well as blind perceptual listening tests with trained listeners. We conduct both types of tests on a running basis to guide our design process. In addition to testing speakers in isolation, we also test them in installations of multiple speakers, ensuring we know how they’ll sound together. Plus, we always test them in environments that mirror the real-world conditions.
To ensure the quality of our hardware, we certify our products to external standards and beyond. Each product spends more than a year in our in-house testing environment, undergoing even more rigorous assessments of robustness and durability across a range of measures. And to uncover and address potential weaknesses before the product goes to market, we also test each product extensively under extreme conditions, beyond what it’s expected to experience under normal use.
Great sound in the real world
Great sound in the lab doesn’t mean much if customers struggle to replicate it. That’s why we mirror real-world conditions when testing, and why we integrate digital signal processing (DSP). DSP uses multiple methods of audio optimization to ensure clear voice messages and background music that sounds good, without the need for manual adjustments. As a result, Axis speakers are ready to go out of the box – no need for a specialist to configure the system.
Plus, because every speaker in an installation matters when it comes to on-site sound coverage, we’ve made sure our preinstalled management software provides an easy way for you to monitor and test the status of every speaker in your audio system, wherever you are. After all, it doesn’t matter how great a speaker is if you wouldn’t get an alert if it were offline or needed maintenance.
A system you can depend on
Our meticulous approach to quality is the reason our audio offerings are so strong. From the earliest prototypes all the way through to the features that make day-to-day use easier, we work to ensure that your audio always gets to your audience – loud and clear. Why? Because audio you can trust has a big role to play in a smarter, safer world.
