INDIA: Arbane Groupe has appointed Fidato as the exclusive distributor for APG Audio and Active Audio across India, giving the value-added professional AV distributor responsibility for distribution, channel development, sales, service and market expansion for both brands nationwide. The agreement was signed at Arbane Groupe’s headquarters near Nantes.

The appointment brings two complementary areas of French loudspeaker engineering into Fidato’s portfolio. APG Audio brings its heritage in professional sound reinforcement, with loudspeaker technologies developed for live sound, events, auditoriums, theatres and fixed installations, while Active Audio focuses on architectural and installed sound, particularly applications where speech intelligibility, controlled directivity and performance in acoustically challenging environments are critical.

“What attracted us to APG Audio and Active Audio was the combination of strong acoustic engineering, product quality and the complementary nature of the two brands,” says Naveen Sharma, Managing Director of Fidato. “Together, they allow us to address a wide spectrum of the Indian professional audio market with solutions that are technically strong, reliable and relevant to the evolving needs of our customers and partners.”

Fidato already works with systems integrators, AV consultants, resellers and project partners across India, many of which deliver professional audio as part of broader AV installations. The addition of APG Audio and Active Audio therefore extends the distributor’s reach into a wider range of applications, while also creating opportunities to engage specialist audio partners beyond its existing network.

The initial focus will span corporate and conferencing, entertainment and hospitality, live sound and acoustically challenging venues. Corporate environments demand intelligibility, consistent coverage and integration with contemporary meeting and collaboration systems, while bars, pubs, clubs, discotheques and lounges place greater emphasis on high-impact sound, coverage and reliability within architecturally defined spaces. Live and event applications, meanwhile, call for performance and flexibility, while reverberant spaces, complex geometry and difficult coverage requirements require a more engineered approach to system design.

“Our strategy will be application-led rather than product-led,” says Sharma. That approach reflects what Fidato sees as a changing Indian professional audio market, with customers and consultants placing greater emphasis on intelligibility, coverage, acoustic performance and the overall experience rather than basic sound reinforcement alone. For the distributor, APG Audio and Active Audio provide technologies intended to address these requirements across different project environments.

“This is why we believe it is the right time to introduce APG Audio and Active Audio more strongly into the Indian market,” says Sharma. “Both brands bring a very strong French engineering heritage and a solution-oriented approach to acoustics. They give us technologies that can address real challenges in Indian projects rather than simply adding another loudspeaker option to an already crowded market. Our role will be to make their technology accessible, understood and well supported in India.”

Arbane Groupe was formed through the merger of two French loudspeaker manufacturers. APG has designed and built high-power loudspeakers for the live performance and events markets since 1978, while Active Audio has developed solutions for highly intelligible speech reproduction since 2002. Active Audio took a majority stake in APG in 2016, with the two companies subsequently pooling their manufacturing and research and development operations in Nantes before formally merging in 2020 to create Arbane Groupe.

For Fidato, the agreement represents more than an expansion of its product portfolio. “Partnering with Arbane Groupe represents an important milestone for Fidato,” says Sharma. “This agreement is not simply about bringing APG Audio and Active Audio to India. It is about bringing proven technologies, strong engineering and new possibilities to our customers and partners. For our customers, this partnership ultimately means greater choice, better-engineered solutions, and the confidence of having strong local support behind world-class audio technology.”