92 Boating New Zealand
of audio to other devices on the boat without requiring physical
cabling between the components.
Another standout product highlighted at the show was
Fusion’s all-in-one Panel Stereo, which takes care of the cabling
issues normally associated with installing an audio head unit
and separate speakers.
With a pair of matched speakers and a large surface bass
radiator all built into the same slimline enclosure with the Class-D
ampliier, the unit can be surface-mounted on to any suitable
bulkhead or panel. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity enables
streaming of your favourite music from your choice of device. And
of course, it’s IP65-sealed against water and dust ingress.
Baird says Fusion’s market share in New Zealand has been
on the back of fantastic support from the local marine industry.
“Without it, we wouldn’t have had the base to build our
business internationally.”
he acquisition by Garmin, he adds, provided inancial
stability with a rock-solid company of a size that is hard to
conceive for a Kiwi start-up. Headquartered in Kansas City, the
company employs more than 3,100 engineers and designers –
nearly a quarter of its 11,500 staf and associates worldwide.
Garmin is active in the marine, aeronautical, itness and
smartwatch markets. Its products range to some fairly extreme
environments – from 100m below the sea for the Descent GPS
Dive Computer, through to an altitude of 12,000m on the light
deck of an aircraft with its light deck displays.
he aspect of Garmin’s engineering philosophy that most
surprised and pleased Baird was the huge testing regime, and the
resources that were made available to Fusion to support this.
A philosophy of extreme testing inluences the designs and
ultimately enables the company to build better products, not
necessarily cheaper ones. Garmin also owns its manufacturing
facilities, ensuring it has full control over the quality of the
end-product.
Most of its products are manufactured in one of three
factories in Taiwan, with the exception of the speakers whichare made at the factory in China (as is 90 percent of the world’s
production of speakers).
his history of engineering-led innovation has enabled
Fusion to pull of its latest coup with SeaRay boats. Part of the
massive American Brunswick corporation, SeaRay claims to be
the world’s largest manufacturer of pleasure boats.
When Fusion recently visited SeaRay in Knoxville,
Tennessee to showcase its latest range, the team was unaware
that the company was about to sign up a competitor for a new
three-year supply deal for marine entertainment systems for
all its boats.
According to Baird, the company put the immediate brakes
on that deal, asking, “how can we allow our competitors to
have an advantage over us for the next three years?” Instead,
it signed a deal with Fusion that will see the products installed
as standard-it audio entertainment products across the entire
range of SeaRay vessels, from sport boats to yachts.
Baird believes that the meeting was brought about in no
small part thanks to New Zealand’s America’s Cup success. He
says his sales and marketing team travels extensively, valuing the
face-to-face meeting over any sort of electronic communication,
and says many Kiwis may not fully appreciate the response when
they introduce themselves as being from New Zealand.
“hat’s a clever country,” or words to that efect, is the
common sentiment, and companies are more often receptive
than not.
Despite the negative points of view sometimes espoused
locally about the America’s Cup being a rich man’s sport, Baird
says it’s been impressed on the rest of the world that throwing
money at something does not always buy the best.
he right attitude, good design and plain hard work are what
have made New Zealand world-leaders in so many sectors, and
he is excited about Auckland again showcasing to the world
when we host the next America’s Cup up in 2021.
Conveniently, Fusion’s head-oice is about 800m from the
team bases on the Auckland Viaduct. BNZLEFT Music and boating should
be inseparable....all Fusion products remain designed
and engineered in New Zealand...