Wheatstone Bulks Up

Wheatstone Corporation has acquired the assets and intellectual property of Pacific Research & Engineering (PR&E) from GatesAir of Quincy, IL (formerly Harris Broadcast) for an undisclosed amount. PR&E (formerly known and loved as Pacific Recorders back in the day) is a distinguished broadcast console manufacturer dating back to 1969 with more than $80 million in products and services sold globally. The purchase includes audio consoles, the networking system, the furniture lines, all designs, trademarks, engineering files and tooling, effectively restoring the PR&E console brand under the Wheatstone umbrella.

In announcing the acquisition, Wheatstone CEO Gary Snow said, “We have a respect for the PR&E brand that goes way back. They were considered the Mercedes Benz of consoles at one time, and today, the name PR&E still stands for quality. Our intention is to not only restore the PR&E brand, but to grow it and give existing as well as new customers the mobility to easily transition to IP networking.”

The New Bern, NC-based Wheatstone previously acquired Auditronics in March of 1999 and Audion Labs in October of 2015, and currently manufactures a complete line of broadcast studio products that includes Audioarts Engineering and VoxPro brands, as well as Wheatstone IP audio networking, control surfaces, talent stations, audio processing for FM, AM and streaming, software applications, and other products developed and designed specifically for broadcast.