Arnaud Destinay began his career in sound post-production for television and cinema, first in London then in Paris. He joined Trinnov Audio in 2010 and is now sales director for the company. He promotes the brand internationally with a team of 10 people, most of whom are commercial engineers with backgrounds in recording and acoustics. He has agreed to talk with us about the origins of the French brand and its different areas of expertise.
Could you introduce Trinnov Audio?
Trinnov Audio is a French digital audio processor manufacturer founded in 2003 after several years of research in immersive sound and acoustic correction. Today, the company is composed of a team of over forty people who work across five time zones, half of whom are engineers by training.
One of our characteristics is that we operate within three different markets: professional audio, commercial cinema and high-end residential audio.
We’ve equipped more than 1500 studios throughout the world, 1500 movie theaters and 3500 high-end installations for private clients. Among our French clients are France Télévisions, UGC, RFI, INA, l’Orchestre National de France, Warner Music France, Orange Labs…
What are the origins of the project?
Trinnov Audio is first and foremost the result of a meeting of minds between Arnaud Laborie, Sébastien Montoya and Rémy Bruno, three engineers with a passion for audio.
ICRAM, a unique French research institute founded by Pierre Boulez, also played an important part as it is where Arnaud Laborie (current CEO) and Rémy Bruno (Director of R&D) met. They used this place as an observatory to discover state-of-the-art techniques and technologies in the field of signal processing and immersive sound research.
From there came the wild idea to capture, process and reproduce sound in three dimensions.
The ensuing research led to publications with the AES (Audio Engineering Society) and the filing of several patents to protect their innovations, which still represent a large part of the company’s technological heritage.
What are your main areas of expertise?
Essentially, we specialize in acoustics, signal treatment, software and electronics.
We use these skills to improve sound reproduction and sound spatialization in particular. The particularity of our method is that we capture, interpret and process sound with the utmost respect for its physical characteristics. Sound isn’t just a question of frequencies. Its transmission is a multidimensional phenomenon. We pay particular attention to timing and to the dispersion of sound waves in three dimensions, fundamental physical principles that are often ignored, if not underestimated.
We achieve this through our Optimizer acoustic correction technology and by taking full advantage of new immersive formats such as Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Auro-3D.
Lastly, we stand out from the competition by our bold choice to use computers as the basis of our devices, as it is the only way to support the vast quantity of calculations required for our algorithms to work in high definition and across so many channels. Besides the power and transparency of the processing (proof of this is that our products are used by very discerning clients), this allows us to provide devices that are much more durable and can be upgraded with software, when other devices have to be replaced. In other words, we aggressively (and successfully) combat programmed obsolescence. Naturally, these computers are supported by our own sound cards.
Why the name Trinnov Audio?
From the very beginning, the goal of our founders was to develop the company internationally.
Consequently, they had to find a name that wasn’t already taken, didn’t have any negative connotations in other countries or cultures and that made sense for our line of business.
Trinnov is a portmanteau combining Tri (tridimensional) and Innovation, in reference to our work in three-dimensional sound.
Are your products made in France?
Absolutely. It is something we are very proud of. The Covid-19 crisis reminded us just how important it is to manufacture goods locally.
All hardware and software design is carried out by our R&D team in France. Manufacturing and assembly are handled by several subcontractors, all of whom are also based in France.
With the exception of certain components and electronic cards that, unfortunately, can only be made in Asia, we strive to develop our products internally whenever possible and to manufacture everything in France.
Designing and marketing products with high technological value with a solid team is one of our greatest strengths and explains in part the company’s stability and strength over the past 17 years.
Our companies are neighbors* What made you choose this location?
At the time, the three founders lived in the Val-de-Marne region and opened their first offices in Bry-sur-Marne where the SFP studios were located before relocating the company’s headquarters to Neuilly-Plaisance.
For our team as well as our customers, it is important for us to remain close to Paris and to a train station that is easy to reach by public transport, in our case the Val de Fontenay station.
* Son-Vidéo.com’s headquarters are situated in the neighboring commune of Champigny-sur-Marne, Ed.
In which countries are your devices distributed?
Our products are distributed across every continent and in more than 45 countries. We opened a subsidiary in the United States in 2018 and we have a colleague based in Taiwan to cover the Asian market.
Today, 90% of our revenue is generated internationally, but we intend to refocus our efforts on the French market, which is why we were so pleased and fortunate to be able to hire Alexandre Garcia (ex Bowers & Wilkins) in February 2020.
This article on your blog is an excellent start and a step in the right direction. We are really pleased to be working with Son-Vidéo.com.
