Lenbrook Media Group announces foundation of MQA Labs

It came as quite a surprise that Lenbrook International took over the ailing company MQA Ltd – as we reported. This took place in September 2023 and included all patents and, in particular, codecs such as MQA and SCL6, as well as taking over part of the workforce and retaining the site in England. The next surprise came at the beginning of this year, when Lenbrook International or Lenbrook Group of Companies announced the formation of the new Lenbrook Media Group – you can find the detailed report from sempre-audio.at here. This was to be a business group of Lenbrook International, which would be responsible for marketing BluOS, MQA and SCL6 in the future.

The newly formed Lenbrook Media Group has now announced initial information about its future strategy, as well as the founding of MQA Labs, and is also providing the very first insight into what it describes as a product suite that, with AIRIA by MQA Labs, FOQUS by MQA Labs and QRONO by MQA Labs, will include a wide range of technologies for optimising the entire audio chain in music production, music distribution and playback.

MQA Labs with AIRIA by MQA Labs, FOQUS by MQA Labs and QRONO by MQA Labs

The Lenbrook Media Group sees itself as a specialist for high-resolution audio in its entirety and is now forming a new division with MQA Labs, which offers technologies that improve audio processing throughout the entire music supply chain.

According to Lenbrook Media Group, AIRIA by MQA Labs, also known under the technical name SCL6, delivers high-resolution audio signals and is characterised above all by the fact that it offers seamless scaling from lossless to very lossy rates, depending on the available bandwidth.

OQUS by MQA Labs represents an innovative approach to analogue-to-digital conversion, as the Canadians put on record. The focus here is on perfect timing, but not just that. Details will be published in the coming weeks.

This also applies to the newly announced QRONO by MQA Labs, which is intended to bring a number of improvements to audio processing in playback devices. There is talk of clear, detailed playback and even life-like music playback.

Technologies open to licence holders

Lenbrook Media Group is already extremely optimistic that the aforementioned technologies will meet with great interest from the industry and that the first partners will be on board within a very short space of time. For example, it is expected that the new technologies AIRIA by MQA Labs, OQUS by MQA Labs and QRONO by MQA Labs will be introduced in a number of products for licencees before the end of 2025.

This also makes it clear why Lenbrook International decided to acquire MQA Ltd. last year.

“These developments confirm our instincts about this team and the value of IP. Whilst the selection and availability of MQA content remains a priority for us, it has never been about a single codec.”

Gordon Simmonds, CEO of the Lenbrook Group of Companies

The creation of MQA Labs and its latest family of products is said to reflect the Group’s passion to improve the entire audio chain and develop the highest quality recording, distribution and playback technologies for the benefit of the entire audio industry and its fans. This eloquent and well-chosen marketing strategy describes the intention behind the newly established MQA Labs.

Getting to the point

The plans that Lenbrook Media Group is now outlining for the newly formed MQA Labs are big, and once again it all sounds as if they are on a crusade for the noble goal of making this world a better place. AIRIA by MQA Labs, FOQUS by MQA Labs and QRONO by MQA Labs are intended to serve as technologies that raise the quality of audio to a new level, are ideally suited to appeal to a wide range of customers and are available across as many products as possible. But this is probably the crucial point, because, as with MQA itself, these are technologies that ultimately represent nothing new, whose actual benefits are at least questionable to critics, and are therefore ultimately much ado about nothing.

From the Lenbrook Media Group’s point of view, it is of course all about gaining as many licencees as possible, as this is the only way to get cash into the Canadians’ coffers. In order to achieve this, the marketing machinery will probably be cranked up in the coming months and both the industry and customers will be wooed. It is to be feared that, from a sober point of view, the same game will be played that MQA Ltd. has already played…