COMPACT AES67 & ST 2110 AUDIO BRIDGE PLATFORM

The Iggy inspiration naturally evolved from our BACH AES67 & ST 2110 OEM technology.  In order to support our BACH modules and chips, we make development systems which are available in various sizes.  Frequently, we connect them to audio equipment from outside suppliers for interoperability testing in our labs.

One day our engineers asked why we didn’t buy smaller audio bridges in order to allow them to do some testing at their desks.  We thought this was a good idea.  After doing extensive searching, we could only find bulky 1RU solutions in order to get our required number of audio channels.   At the same time, there were 30 or so compact BACH development systems on a small table awaiting testing that we were walking by every day.  Huh!

It took a while but one of our engineers suggested the idea to put this development system in an enclosure and hence the genesis of Iggy was born. This got us thinking but how should we package it?  Well, we already had our popular NEWT 2110 to HDMI converter form factor so why not re-use it.  Then, our engineers went to work imagining what was possible from an audio technology perspective in such a compact enclosure.  They came up with so many ideas that we already had a portfolio of solutions before we built the first box.

Why Iggy for a name?  Well, our marketing department went into full swing trying to come up with a name that fit with the rest of our 2110 IP solutions like NEWT, the RAPTOR openGear card and our GATOR 12G SDI family.

After over 100 suggestions, over email one Friday afternoon, Iggy was chosen.  The appeal for Iggy is that not only are some of the smaller family members compact, cute and versatile little creatures but they all have an amazing ability to adapt to their environment.  Many of the same key attributes of our Iggy products.  Plus, the Iggy name is also synonymous with audio and music.

First, it is a reminder of the legendary rock and roll singer, songwriter, record producer, Iggy Pop, known as the “Godfather of Punk” and for his live performances including popularizing the “stage-dive”.   A good fit for an innovative portfolio of products that will be performing its antics on live stages all around the world and popping up in studios or anywhere audio engineers need to conveniently bridge their audio to their network.

Besides the link to this classic rocker, there is a second more modern connection to rapper, singer, songwriter Iggy Azalea.  Since bursting onto the music scene, she has sold 48 million records worldwide and a slew of accolades including four Grammy Award nominations.  Our Iggy is also looking to duplicate this success and take the world by storm.

We are asked all the time about how we came up with the logo.  This is the easy part for us because we have a creative and world class graphics department lead by Brian which always exceeds our wildest expectations.   We told him to connect the little iguana with music and the famous Iggy DJ spinning discs logo was born.