It’s close to five years since the pandemic, but have we really left it behind? Inflation has gone down, yes, but the same high prices brought on by supply-chain shortages have lingered. It’s likely you’ve just gotten used to the new normal, but what does that normal look like for the audio industry? A recent report surveying professional audio manufacturers looks to uncover how audio manufacturers have changed up their business practices following pandemic-borne supply chain shortages.

The survey was conducted by the Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) with its members—which include Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, QSC, RF Venue and Shure—the respondents. The overarching goal of the survey was to ascertain lessons learned from the pandemic as well as to see how its effects still linger.

Many Companies Are Still Coasting on Backstock from the Pandemic

Baseline, there wasn’t a single company that said their operations were not affected by the pandemic supply chain issues. The main differences were in how much the businesses were affected.

The lion’s share, (86%) said their companies were moderately to majorly affected by pandemic-born supply chain disruptions, a large component of which was interruptions in semiconductor fabrication. The other 14% said they were “barely” affected.

How manufacturers chose to respond to those issues varied as well, but surprisingly, there is a consistent 43/57 split between manufacturers that drastically changed aspects of their business in response to supply chain shortages and those that did not.

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David Fuller, QSC VP, engineering & product management for pro audio over at QSC noted that the company shifted its focus on supply priority during the pandemic over to automotive.

Meanwhile, companies like Point Source, RF Venue and Shure stated that much of their response simply focused on increasing their supply of raw materials and products, with Shure specifically stating the company focused on building backlogs to shore up against any future disruptions.

A consequence of this, however, has been a noted dampening of demand in certain product areas due to the increase in supply.

“Fulfilling a large backorder has provided the market with sizeable stock” of Shure product, says Dane Roth, global corporate communications senior director for Shure, “which means lowered demand for some products at this point. Those [distribution and dealer] customers may be overstocking for themselves to avoid another shortage situation in the future.”

Conversely, Point Source has not reported much change in the aftermath of the pandemic, though the company does note it is “constantly checking for issues with raw materials.”  

Supply Chain Shortages Forced Most Audio Manufacturers to Retool Their Products

One consistency across the board, however, is that each company, at least in some way, retooled its manufacturing. Respondents to the survey very commonly mentioned either “redesigns” or “re-engineering” in their responses to manufacturing changes.

QSC’s Fuller cited “product redesigns” as a means of adjusting to component scarcity. Fuller also noted that to this day, there are still concerns over shipping times and rates on products moving the Red Sea and Panama canal.

Along with “spot buys” of parts, Shure’s Roth said “re-engineering products” with parts and components that promised future availability came into play during supply chain shortages.

Sennheiser’s executive vice president United States, Greg Beebe, echoed that Sennheiser also implemented “strategic purchasing and redesign.”

A Rare Few Embarked on Onshoring Operations Post-Pandemic

Perhaps most substantially RF Venue moved most of its operations to the U.S. in the wake of the pandemic.

Regan largely attributes the company’s resilience to supply chain shortages being its in-house manufacturing operations.

“Because of the supply chain disruptions in the market, we proactively made the move to design, build and test our products in the USA,” notes Chris Regan, chief innovation officer and co-founder of RF Venue and chair of PAMA’s board of directors

“It may not be an approach that works for all products, and in certain cases it is more expensive, but when you factor in the amount of cash that needs to be tied up for large overseas suppliers and add in the freight costs and time delay for delivery, being in control of production in-house becomes a very attractive option.

“I see other manufacturers doing the same and have a sense that there is a large ‘onshoring’ effort going on in the U.S. across many industries.”

The fact that RF Venue and other companies have begun to onshore manufacturing in the wake of the pandemic may make them uniquely positioned to shelter another potential incoming challenge: trade tariffs.

While it is uncertain exactly how tariffs are going to impact businesses, experts are already expecting the electronics industry (at least the consumer side of it) to take a significant hit.

Regan himself has acknowledged the potential impact these changes could have on importing and exporting goods for manufacturers and has stated that PAMA will be monitoring and reporting on these changes as they affect its members heading into 2025.

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