Ms Sherry Chung, Managing Director

Managing Director Sherry Chung looks like a schoolgirl until she begins to talk about her 30 years' experience with high-end audio equipment and installations. HK Sound Concepts has been providing customers with the best sound and now video images since 1990, when she founded the company. Now expanding her business to provide custom home entertainment systems and solutions for hotel suites, recording studios and commercial properties, she knows her amplifiers, speakers and subwoofers very well.

From the smallest apartment to huge exhibition halls, Chung serves homes, flats, hotels, conference centres and other companies that need AV systems in China, Hong Kong and Macau. Her company has helped the Venetian-Macau install and conceal the speakers in all the suites and conference facilities of the hotel, totaling 380 sets of speakers throughout the premises. She has provided the music server system for the Grand Hyatt and to many restaurants that wish to create a unique ambience.

Moving with the times, Chung is the mastermind behind designing excellent IP-based sound and video systems in Hong Kong using high-quality HDTV without compressing the signal. She recommends using CAT 5e or CAT 6 cables that distribute the sound and image over a network connecting to an Ethernet hub in a home network, rather than using an iPod or computer server, which has to compress the data or wait for the boot up before transmission, to attain the highest fidelity and clearest image.

In multi-room installations, each room can have its own music and image combination serving the differing tastes of Mom, Dad, and all the children simultaneously. For commercial properties, such as spas in hotels or clubhouses in luxury property developments, each room can play the music the customer prefers by offering a large menu of choices to each client.

These systems can also function as intercoms for spa workers or family members, and a camera can be added to the network for baby or elderly monitoring as well as security features. They work especially well in large, multi-level buildings. “One large house that was built on three levels needed surround-sound audio on demand in 14 rooms and video on demand in nine rooms,” she said. This system cost almost HK$2 million.

“Our systems allow people to monitor their homes for security reasons or to connect with family while traveling,” Chung said. “Homes equipped with wireless broadband signals can support a private network over the Internet. The system integrates with the home network and home entertainment systems to allow video and audio on demand features which fit busy executive lifestyles.”

Chung can work with designers when a home is being built or remodeled so that the entire system can be concealed, and soundproofed enough not to disturb neighbours. “Sometimes, when we have completed an installation, customers will tell us that the sound experience is better than sitting in a movie house, because it has a better balance in a smaller room that is well-designed and configured to requirements,” Chung explained.

The company uses the best brands, such as Lexicon, which pioneered surround-sound systems, using either a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker configuration. “It is the most super-sophisticated audio wave science,” Chung said. “We can service huge rooms, going up to even 9.3 systems, meaning that the .1 or .3 is the number of subwoofer and the 5 or 7 or 9 are the number of speakers placed in the front and rear plus side channels along the walls for complete surround-sound audio.”

Sound Concepts also distributes the UK-based ATC loudspeakers, which are famous around the world in the professional market for their ability to accurately reproduce sound, and the US company, Polk Audio, which is a speaker specialist that creates speakers in all sizes, from tiny units to free-standing towers, and in-wall and in-ceiling speakers that were used in the Venetian. Sound Concepts finds the right array and positioning for each job.

She prefers to use Netstreams, again from the US, as the network system. She said Netstream is the fastest growing company in the industry, with its advanced technology for IP-based designs and the distribution of uncompressed audio and video throughout a house or business. Sound Concepts, as the name implies, is the sound specialist, so the company works with various suppliers for the video components and screens. Chung uses Stewart screens and Marantz or Panasonic HD projectors to integrate with home entertainment systems. Both plasma and LCD screens are recommended, depending upon the size required and the budget. “All HDTV projections can use larger screens at a closer distance than analogue TV, making the experience closer to being at the movies,” Chung said.

Chung believes in the best training for her staff, sending them to be taught by experts in the factories. “It’s money well spent,” she said, “because I still employ the same people I hired when I started. As the equipment develops, so do my staff’s skills. I am a big believer in good aftersales service, too. I know that many customers are too busy to learn how to operate the systems, so I have trained technicians standing by 24 hours a day to help them. Many sporting events are broadcast late in the evening or early in the morning in Hong Kong, so it’s important for clients to have access to a technician to fix technical problems, or just show them how to turn the system on,” she said, smiling broadly.

“We give customers remote control, but often they don’t realise it takes some time to go through a sequence of commands, and since the system is controlled by a computer, sometimes it is necessary to reboot. When customers have these problems, that is the time they learn how to use the system.”

Most of the products have guarantees or warranties between three and six years, and Chung offers a one-year onsite warranty for any equipment her company installs.
- Bonnie E Engel

PHILOSOPHY
Our two main goals are to keep up with all the technical changes in the world of high-quality audio systems and to provide our customers with the best system designs for home and commercial property entertainment systems. We believe in our products, which are the finest loud- speakers, amplifiers, home theatre equipment, cable and accessories, IP-based network equipment, CD, DVD players and D/A converters available on the market today. We work very hard to solve the challenges of each unique installation and guarantee our systems for one year after completion

FAST FACTS
• Sound Concepts Limited was established in January 1990 in Hong Kong, by Ms Sherry Chung, who has been working in the audio industry since 1978
• Its goal is to import premium quality audio and home theatre products with incredible performance but at reasonable prices into Hong Kong and China, and provide excellent aftersales service to all its valued customers
• The company is currently the sole distributor of high-quality products listed in Hong Kong and China
• The company will continue searching for high quality audio and home theatre products with outstanding performance to add to our distribution list
• Since 2003, some accessories are sourced from China
• The team including experienced salesmen and technicians, is looking forward to the opportunity to be of service to customers at all times