Eighty years is a remarkable milestone for any technology brand. Yet in professional audio, longevity alone carries little weight unless it is accompanied by an unwavering ability to remain relevant. Markets evolve, technologies disrupt, customer expectations shift, and entire workflows are rewritten. Through all of this, only a handful of companies have managed to continuously redefine both themselves and the industry around them.

JBL Professional belongs firmly in that category. Having shaped everything from concert touring and cinema sound to stadiums, houses of worship, corporate campuses and cultural venues, the brand’s legacy is measured not merely in years, but in the countless experiences it has helped bring to life across generations.

Today, however, JBL Professional is about far more than loudspeakers. Under the leadership of Nick Screen, Vice President & General Manager, HARMAN Professional Solutions APAC, the conversation has shifted towards intelligent ecosystems, immersive experiences, and customer-centric innovation. With decades of experience across Asia-Pacific, Screen understands that tomorrow’s customers are no longer simply seeking exceptional products … they are investing in connected, scalable solutions that simplify complexity and deliver lasting value.

The conversation that follows is not merely a celebration of JBL Professional’s storied legacy, but a forward-looking exploration of the ideas, innovations, and industry forces that will shape the future of professional audio; as Nick candidly shares his perspectives on leadership, intelligent ecosystems, and the evolving demands of a rapidly changing market.

ETA: JBL stands today at an extraordinary 80-year milestone — a legacy that has shaped how the world listens, experiences, and engineers sound. From a leadership standpoint, how do you personally balance protecting that legacy while ensuring JBL Professional continues to evolve with relevance in a rapidly shifting technological landscape?
NICK SCREEN: JBL was founded on a culture of innovation, that spirit remains at the heart of everything we do today. Our heritage provides the foundation, whilst innovation ensures our relevance. Our responsibility is to safeguard the principles that made JBL successful such as acoustic excellence, engineering rigor, reliability, and customer trust. At the same time, we must continuously evolve how those principles are delivered.  Today’s customers expect more than exceptional sound quality. They expect intelligent systems, seamless workflows, scalability, networked control, and long-term operational value. Investing in the solution is key.

ETA:  For eight decades, JBL has influenced everything from cinema sound to global touring and installed audio. In today’s context, how would you define JBL Professional’s core identity? Is it still rooted in loudspeaker engineering, or has it evolved into something broader, perhaps a complete audio ecosystem provider?
NICK SCREEN: At its core, JBL Professional remains a company dedicated to delivering exceptional audio experiences. That has never changed. Experiences themselves have elevated and evolved. That has redefined what the creatives in our industry need to create those memorable experiences. Loudspeaker engineering remains a foundational strength and an area where JBL continues to lead the industry, our identity today extends far beyond the loudspeaker itself.  In addition to loudspeaker engineering, which includes manufacturing our own transducers, we have become a comprehensive provider of professional audio solutions that combine transducers, amplification, DSP, network management, system design tools, and software platforms into a cohesive solution.
If you consider our VTX Line Arrays, then factors such as ease of rigging and the available software tools are increasingly important to our customers. JBL has invested in these areas producing a product with best in class rigging and an end-to-end software solution with Venue Synthesis for Design and FLUX:: Mira for measurement. Customers increasingly want solutions rather than individual products. Whether they are building a stadium, a performing arts center, a corporate campus, a house of worship, or a touring production, they expect technologies that work together seamlessly. JBL Professional, together with the broader HARMAN Professional portfolio, is uniquely positioned to deliver that end-to-end experience.

ETA:  Recent developments across the JBL Professional portfolio — from advanced touring systems like the SRX900 Series to installation-focused innovations like the Control 400 Series — suggest a growing convergence between performance, control, and scalability. Do you see the future of pro audio being driven by integrated ecosystems rather than standalone products?
NICK SCREEN: The future is not about choosing between performance and simplicity. It is about delivering both. That’s why JBL continues to invest in solutions that combine world-class acoustics with intelligent control, networked audio, prediction and system management software tools, and seamless integration across the HARMAN ecosystem.
Customers want solutions that are easier to deploy, simpler to manage, and more efficient to operate. They want products that communicate seamlessly, provide meaningful data, enable remote monitoring, and support future scalability. This is especially important as venues become larger and operational resources become more constrained.
Another example of this from within the HARMAN portfolio is the recently announced BSS OMNI. OMNI is the next generation AV platform from HARMAN Professional combining DSP, Video and USB Distribution, Users Interfaces and Software into one ecosystem.

ETA:  Asia is currently among the most dynamic growth regions for professional AV and live event technologies. From your perspective, what fundamentally differentiates these markets in terms of technology adoption, scale of ambition, and user expectations? And how is JBL Professional adapting to serve them more effectively?
NICK SCREEN: What makes Asia particularly exciting is the combination of scale, speed, and ambition. To address these opportunities, we continue to strengthen our regional support capabilities, invest in training and education, collaborate closely with local partners, and develop solutions that address specific market needs. Success in these markets requires much more than delivering products; it requires acting as a long-term technology and business partner.
There is clearly a demand for future-ready solutions that deliver reliability, scalability, and exceptional user experiences. APAC is leading the way in immersive experiences, and we are seeing high demand for our FLUX:: x JBL immersive audio solutions in the region. Our Singapore Experience Centre opened earlier this year is a demonstration of our commitment to the APAC market and to our goals: creating enduring relationships, elevating experiences and exciting audiences.

ETA:  We’re seeing somewhat of a blurring of boundaries between live sound and installed systems, where stadiums, immersive venues, cultural destinations, and large-scale entertainment infrastructure demand both performance and permanence. How is JBL Professional redefining its approach to address this convergence of live and installed audio ecosystems?
NICK SCREEN: Historically, live sound and installed audio were treated as separate disciplines. Today our focus is on delivering platforms that can adapt to multiple use cases while maintaining exceptional performance. Technologies developed for touring applications are increasingly finding value in fixed installations, while installation-focused solutions are benefiting from advancements in networked audio, system optimization, and intelligent control originally driven by live production environments. Our objective is to give customers maximum flexibility while maintaining consistent user experiences across applications.

ETA:  Despite rapid growth, the global pro AV industry continues to face challenges around skills gaps, system complexity, and integration maturity. From JBL’s vantage point, what are the most pressing challenges today—and how can manufacturers play a more proactive role in simplifying technology adoption and empowering users?
NICK SCREEN: The risk is that the technology itself is advances faster than the industry’s ability to fully absorb and operationalize it. Many organizations struggle to find qualified talent with expertise across electro-acoustics, networking, software, control systems, etc. At the same time, systems are developing at speed, which could introduce additional complexity for end users and operators.
As a manufacturer we have a responsibility to simplify deployment, improve interoperability, provide intuitive user interfaces, and design products that reduce rather than increase operational complexity. Our investments in this area are clear; for example, in tour sound we continue to develop our software ecosystem with recent updates to Venue Synthesis, ArrayLink, Performance, and Performance Manager.
Education is also critical. JBL Professional/HARMAN Professional invests heavily in training programs, certification opportunities, technical workshops, and partner enablement initiatives because knowledge transfer is just as important as technology innovation.

ETA:  As JBL celebrates 80 years of innovation—a journey that has continually redefined sound across generations—what do you believe will define the next decade of professional audio, and how is JBL positioning itself to lead that future?
NICK SCREEN: Audio systems will become increasingly connected, adaptive, and intelligent. They will provide deeper insights into performance, operational efficiency, audience engagement, and system health. Users will expect technologies that not only sound exceptional but also simplify operations and deliver measurable value. We will also see growing demand for immersive experiences across entertainment, hospitality, education, transportation, corporate environments, and public spaces. Sound will play an even more important role in shaping how people interact with physical environments.
JBL is uniquely positioned to lead this future because we combine eight decades of acoustic expertise with the innovation capabilities of HARMAN. We are investing in advanced transducer technologies, intelligent software platforms, connected system architectures, and integrated workflows that empower designers, operators, and end users alike. As we celebrate 80 years of JBL, we are incredibly proud of our legacy. But what excites me most is that we believe the next chapter of innovation may be the most transformative yet. Our mission remains the same as it has always been: to create technologies that move people through the power of sound.