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Major Changes Soon At Rycote


ronmac

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The following is a post I just saw at the SOS Magazine Forum, posted by Hugh Robjohns:

 

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As many will know, Rycote Microphone Windshields — previously a small family-run but world-renowned business on the outskirts of Stroud in the UK Cotswolds — was sold to the Vitec Group Plc back in 2018. The management team stayed on for a few years before leaving in 2021.
 

The Vitec Group subsequently rebranded as Videndum Plc and a little bird has told me that they have just — in the week before Christmas — informed the staff at Rycote that as of May next year (2023) the factory will close and all manufacturing will move to Ashby in Leicestershire. Jobs may well be offered to existing staff, of course, but I doubt many would be willing or able to relocate.

I find this very sad. One of the major strengths of Rycote was that it had a family feel, and that translated into superlative levels of support. Everyone working there was fully invested in what they did and it was more than just a job for most of them. I fear that aspect will be lost in the move, and although the brand will survive much of what made it special will disappear in the same way that we have seen with other individual companies swallowed into the industry giants of, for example, Harman and Music Tribe.

 

 

Full post here: https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=84736

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I expected the same news to come from Sound Devices by now since it was sold off to a holding company much like Vitec. Shut the place down. Move it somewhere else to consolidate. Find cost savings in every corner.  But, it has been just over a year. Maybe they will get lucky.

 

I've been involved in acquisitions. After evaluation of the company, the VP asked me "How much staff can we get rid of?".  It's a cold, cruel world.

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17 hours ago, Paul F said:

I expected the same news to come from Sound Devices by now since it was sold off to a holding company much like Vitec. Shut the place down. Move it somewhere else to consolidate. Find cost savings in every corner.  But, it has been just over a year. Maybe they will get lucky.

 

Is it just me or the group that acquired Sound Devices is very different from Vitec or Harman? Harman essentially axed AKG after being bought by Samsung, for instance.

 

 

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15 hours ago, borjam said:

Is it just me or the group that acquired Sound Devices is very different from Vitec or Harman? Harman essentially axed AKG after being bought by Samsung, for instance.

 

 

Last year the owners of Sound Devices released a news item that they have started a new department, Mergers and Acquisitions.

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I have been trying to buy a spare windjammer fur for my aging but still efficient stereo setup. Initially the person with a rycote email was positive it could be purchased from them, but then  i have been taken from a vitec to a vivendum email address person and back to no avail. Lately no one responded anymore...

 

 

The acquisition story is very saddening. It is also very difficult to understand the reasons behind it. Rycote company was not in difficulty, or was it?

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14 hours ago, harlowsound said:

Wha happened? I’m curious. 

The new nano shield is a mess, they started making microphones, Timo left Rycote, their support took a few months to pick up where he left...

 

I don't have much to do with Rycote, but even I got to feel all that due to the correspondence about the issues with the nano shield. Who knows what else happened.

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9 minutes ago, Spin360 said:

 they started making microphones

 

which I found disconcerting. And I'm sure other microphone manufacturers felt the same. Especially those who have a cooperation with Rycote by selling their mikes w/ Rycote suspension a kit (like Rode).

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6 hours ago, Mungo said:

 

which I found disconcerting. And I'm sure other microphone manufacturers felt the same. Especially those who have a cooperation with Rycote by selling their mikes w/ Rycote suspension a kit (like Rode).

I am now very dissalusioned with rycote, it seems all downhill now.. I do have to say and I was pleasantly surprised how good the rycote mics sound. 

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On 12/17/2022 at 7:26 PM, Spin360 said:

(...)they started making microphones, Timo left Rycote, their support took a few months to pick up where he left...

 

Are they really making microphones? Or are they selling some OEM stuff from China? It is clear I was wrong.

 

I remember when Marantz Pro suddenly "sprouted" a really diverse line up of products including microphones, mountings, a zeppelin that looks too similar to the Rode Blimp basket (I would guess Rode outsources the basked from and add their own lyre based suspension), while the latest iteration of the PMD661 (mkiii) came out with inferior microphone input noise specifications (according to the Avisoft tests).

 

 

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10 minutes ago, borjam said:

Are they really making microphones? Or are they selling some OEM stuff from China?

 

I remember when Marantz Pro suddenly "sprouted" a really diverse line up of products including microphones, mountings, a zeppelin that looks too similar to the Rode Blimp basket (I would guess Rode outsources the basked from and add their own lyre based suspension), while the latest iteration of the PMD661 (mkiii) came out with inferior microphone input noise specifications (according to the Avisoft tests).

 

 

Mics are assembled in what is currently the factory in Stroud UK soon to be closed , circuit boards etc all manufactured by rycote the capsule is 17mm and must be from another manufacturer but its a seceret as who manufacturers the capsule the capsule response is as per the specs smooth no bumps so pro spec, I wondered if German maybe mbho? . 

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4 hours ago, r.paterson said:

Mics are assembled in what is currently the factory in Stroud UK soon to be closed , circuit boards etc all manufactured by rycote the capsule is 17mm and must be from another manufacturer but its a seceret as who manufacturers the capsule the capsule response is as per the specs smooth no bumps so pro spec, I wondered if German maybe mbho? . 

I stand corrected then.

 

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8 hours ago, andcam said:

maybe this is explains why their customer support has gone to shit. they just don't respond. their supply chain is also dead but that may not be related to this.

Not my experience at all over the last year and, to be honest, I'm surprised to hear you got absolutely no reply. I'm conscious that I've had a lot of very positive and responsive direct contact with Rycote re their new mics (which I have been testing), but outside that I just checked back to my initial customer support request re the Nanoshield issue (March 2022: using the standard online support request), and had a reply within 14 mins, and was kept up-to-date, apart from a bit of what Timo called 'radio silence' in May and early June when they were, as he explained, sending out initial solutions for field testing (with mixed feedback).

 

Cheers,

 

Roland

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On 12/28/2022 at 10:08 AM, Throwback said:

Not my experience at all over the last year and, to be honest, I'm surprised to hear you got absolutely no reply. I'm conscious that I've had a lot of very positive and responsive direct contact with Rycote re their new mics (which I have been testing), but outside that I just checked back to my initial customer support request re the Nanoshield issue (March 2022: using the standard online support request), and had a reply within 14 mins, and was kept up-to-date, apart from a bit of what Timo called 'radio silence' in May and early June when they were, as he explained, sending out initial solutions for field testing (with mixed feedback).

 

Cheers,

 

Roland

 

lucky you! earlier this year I got resolution to one issue, after months, only when I chased them on social media. but i have an ongoing parts request that they've just stopped responding to. it's been 2 months now. 

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