Wheatstone Acquires GatesAir Console Business

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone Corp. announced that it has acquired the assets and intellectual property of Pacific Research & Engineering from GatesAir of Quincy, Ill. (formerly Harris Broadcast) for an undisclosed amount. 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.

PR&E is a console manufacturer dating back to the 1970s with more than $80 million in products and services sold globally.

“We have a respect for the PR&E brand that goes way back,” said Wheatstone CEO Gary Snow. “They were considered the MercedesBenz 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.”

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 brand names, 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 broa