I had a long conversation with Mr. Ashish Aggarwal, CEO of SNAP Networks on the 28th.
First a little background. A few of us did a review of SNAP Networks Violet speakers some time ago. Please check http://www.hifivision.com/reviews/14798-violet-speakers-true-wireless-ht-system-review.html for details on the review.
The review, naturally, did not sit well with Ashish. He immediately contacted Ram and me for a second meeting and a demonstration under his guidance. Unfortunately Ram was very busy and Ashish was travelling between Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, and the US. We had to wait for nearly 9 months before I could meet Ashish. I did meet him today, though for a brief 60 odd minutes. Here is what we discussed.
A Little Background First
Ashish did a BE in Electrical Engineering from VJTI and then went on to get a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University Of California in Santa Barbara. He specialized in DSP where he has gained a lot of expertise. His passion for research into sound started early. After his PhD, he led a team of 8 people and developed part of the algorithm and software for Apples iPod. This was in 2003. From 2003 to 2008 he worked with Harman International where he architected and developed whole home media network solutions, new audio algorithms and DSP software for high end systems, and media servers. He was directly or indirectly involved in the development of some of the best products that came out of the Harman group including JBL, Revel, Infinity, etc.
While at Harman a friend, who was also a PhD, threw a question at him that changed Ashishs life completely. His question was simple why are HT systems so complicated to set up and use? If I, as a PhD, find it difficult to install these systems, what will the status of simpler folks? he elaborated. As an end user, I just want to enjoy my music and movies, not play around with your systems, he concluded.
Ashish remembered his college days. As a grad scholar in Santa Barbara where there were very few Indians, Indian food was not easy to come by those days. So he built a complete HT system on a backpack including a projector, and he used to travel to houses of Indian acquaintances to show a bunch of guys a new movie and get tasty Indian lunch or dinner in return. He had to travel to LA many times from Santa Barbara to get his hands on new Indian and Hollywood DVDs. He used to be called Chalta Firtha HT.
In those 5 odd years, HT systems had got more sophisticated and more complicated. Connections were complex as was the wiring needed for speakers. You had to worry about wire gauge, impedance, resistance and a lot of other technologies. What his subsequent work at Harman showed him was that in pre-sales, nearly 60% of potential clients just walk away from a HT sale as too complicated. After just one experience of setup, 50% of HT owners never install the system again. And, you have some 300 multi-million dollar companies running after the remaining small number. In the US, a good installer will charge $200 an hour. In India also, installers charge a sizeable amount. 90% of the people who do not use professional help install their systems incorrectly.
Thinking about the issue, Ashish came down to two major points that needed to be fulfilled. One was that a HT system should be as simple as switching on a light bulb. Second, it should sound good.
First, the simplicity. To remove darkness, you switch on a light bulb. Can you remove audio darkness by switching on a speaker bulb?
Ashish initially came up with an idea for simplifying all this a universal cable. Using a networking principle, his idea was a router box that identified each input/output device that was connected in a manner similar to what happens in a computer, all using the same cable. The name? Synchronized Network Access Protocol or SNAP. The only issue was a hitch he came across immediately. How do you convince 300 odd devices manufacturers to fall in line and use his single connection methodology? His idea, SNAP, was dead before it started. After contemplating for a while and speaking to friend and well wishers, he decided to evolve a marketable product using the idea. The simplest was a powered speaker with networking capability. Thus the Violet was born.
But, there was an issue. If the speaker needed wires, there was actually no change from existing systems. Companies such as Meridian were already doing that. Ashish continued to be fascinated by the single box or router concept. Why not receive all signals into a simple box, and then network the powered speakers to the box? Why not remove the wires completely? The concept of the current Violet System had taken birth completely.
With wireless, the first issue was jitter in data transmission. Sound was being transmitted as a packet. The timing and packet accuracy was essential to ensure that there was no jitter. Ashish worked on complicated DSP to set up a two way signaling between the box and each speaker to ensure accuracy of data transmission. He managed to take each speakers efficiency upto 200 pico seconds. Ashish ended up with a huge speaker box that had a PC inside, an amplifier, and a single speaker driver inside. Obviously this was an unwieldy system, but it was processing signals perfectly.
Simplicity has been solved. What about good sound?
Ashish was a little weary of asking audiophiles what good sound was. That was not the market he was looking at. He wanted a mass market answer, and the one he got was that a cinema hall sounded good. Another answer was that Bose sounded good. From an initial dislike for Bose, Ashish decided to take their achievements more seriously and see what they had done.
He went back to the drawing board. He placed a speaker inside an anechoic chamber and tested it on-axis and off-axis for frequency, distortion, and coloration. He then used the same speaker and did a blind test with a few friends. The results were different from each other by a huge margin. This was for a single speaker. Then he came across another idea. He tested the speakers for a 5.1 and, surprisingly, the differences disappeared completely. It was at this instance that he realized that Boses Direct/Reflecting speakers system was achieving this by creating a sound wave close to that of an omni-directional speaker. Directional speakers need to be phase aligned for a particular hearing position. Omni-directional speakers, on the other hand, are coherent across the room. The Violet speakers take Boses concept one step further. Using omni-directional speakers, Ashish created an infinite wave system that filled the room with sound and made the speakers disappear completely.
Ashish had now solved both issues simplicity and good sound. The Violet system has a simple box as a central router that can talk to any number of powered speakers that can be placed anywhere in the room.
He still had one issue to solve. And that was to make the product of a size that was simple to install and pleasant to look at. Obviously it cannot have a PC inside. But that was an easy problem to solve. All the DSP done by the PC could be written onto a single microprocessor. The larger and more difficult problem to solve was the speaker driver. Ashish did not like the concept of directional speakers that forced you to sit at one place, place the speakers at a particular place, and do minute adjustments to the speaker directions to get good sound. He wanted his speakers to be placed randomly across the room, he wanted you to have the freedom to sit anywhere and yet get good sound. So he switched to omni- directional speakers. He wrote the DSP into a silicon ship, he developed a small amplifier, shaped the speaker like a light bulb, and you have the Violet speakers. Connection was as simple as plugging a light bulb. He even created two light bulb sockets one that can be placed on the ground or hung from the ceiling and another that can be hung on the wall.
Ashish had started the company with the help, blessings and funding from relations, and a few friends. Even after proving such a concept, Ashish failed to excite the community to fund his vision. When they saw Ashish proudly displaying the huge box, they were disappointed with what he had created and decided to back out politely, and so did the other co-founders. Ashish was now left alone with an idea he knew could be taken to the next stage. Ashish reformed the current team, stretched every rupee he could and took the idea to production and then to the market.
The Present and Future
The product that Ram, I and others had reviewed was literally version 1 of the Violet system. Our review made Ashish go back to the drawing board a little. Since the whole development was being done in India, he was finding it difficult to get a individual or a company to design a good sub woofer for him, As a DSP specialist himself, he was getting frustrated with the response and results from Indian designers. So he ended up in China and located a manufacturer who could design a good sub, and also incorporate Ashishs DSP and amplifier concepts inside.
What is in the market now can be called version 3 with a vastly improved sub woofer that provides a stronger and deeper low frequency sound.
I still had one issue with Ashish. How did he plan to solve the Codec issues and what about the connection between the player and the Violet box? Currently you have two options. One is to set up a digital connection using a coaxial digital and get just Dolby Digital sound. That is what the Violet has license for. The other option is to let the player decode and connect using 6 analog cables. The second method is a bit unwieldy, and kills Ashishs original need of simplicity. Ashish does not want to complicate his box by adding more decoders. Each decoding costs $14 per piece, and adds to the cost!
Enter HDMI 1.4. According to The Blu-Ray forum, all Blu-Ray players with HDMI 1.4 are mandated to decode all audio signals. The Violet version 4 will have a HDMI 1.4 input and can be connected to a Blu-Ray player easily. When this happens, Ashish feels the AVR will become redundant completely. That is his objective to eliminate the AVR completely. A bold plan, half of which he has already achieved.
Next step, Ashish said, will be to make the player obsolete. He mentioned two emerging trends to do this. One is web based sites such as Netflix that allowed you to pay for and play a movie from a centralized server. The second was the introduction of solid state drives. 1 TB solid state drives are working in R&D labs, and something like 250GB have emerged in the market. Imagine going to a shop, picking up an empty 50 GB solid state drive, choosing the movie you want to see, and getting it written onto your drive in a few seconds? Bring that home, and insert it into a slot on your Violet box. And you are watching a Blu-Ray movie without any optical media.
Interesting, I thought. Will really be a wonderful world, I am sure. Something close to what they show in Superman movies and in Star Trek. In Star Trek, data is stored in three dimensions on a long crystal. You insert the crystal into a reader, and multiple laser beams read the data from three planes. I know for a fact that such a device exists, and is just a few years away from being marketed.
Ashish has taken a second mortgage on his house to fund SNAP Networks. His wife continues to work in the US. He has had two children in the three and half years he has spent in setting up and running SNAP Networks. That is the passion he has for his ideas and products.
Looked at from a different perspective - simplicity and good sound - the Violet system is brilliant. Ashish needs to be praised as well as helped to become successful.
Ashishs journey and that of SNAP Netwroks has been one of true commitment and grit. First was proof of concept from wireless and audio quality. Then came miniaturization. Their angel investors have supported them all the way. It is the external investors that shied away and the three other co-founders that left the journey. Only Mr. Bhaita (their Chairman) and Ashish stayed on the course. Through all this he also added a 3 year and a 9 month old baby to his family.
Ashishs Indian operations consist of 30 odd R&D engineers. He has a production facility in Bangalore as well as sub contractors from whom he gets various parts of the system manufactured. In spite of being very patient, he could not get any Indian company to re-design his sub, and had to go to China for that.
Something tells me he is sitting on a gold mine. He has already sold 500 odd systems in India. He has seen people picking up the Violet system in direct competition with Bose systems. He is now working on expanding his market reach through retailers such as Chroma. In my initial review, this was the route I had suggested.
The concept of Violet is to trust devices instead of people. Pick up a system packed in a box with a handle, place the bulb holders where it makes sense for aesthetics, insert the speaker bulbs, connect the main box to a player with an HDMI 1.4 cable, and you have a home theatre ready. How much time should that take? 30 minutes? No room acoustics, no worrying about cabling, no change to all your precious stuff in the room. If you dont have place on the floor, just hang the bulb holders on the wall or even from the ceiling.
He has my complete support. Well done Ashish.
Ashishs next idea? How about a 2 inch cube that can generate 100dB of sound? Sounds impossible? Not with Ashish.
George, can you take this one step further and visit Ashish in his R&D and office? I would like to see some snaps and also get a different perspective.
Cheers
First a little background. A few of us did a review of SNAP Networks Violet speakers some time ago. Please check http://www.hifivision.com/reviews/14798-violet-speakers-true-wireless-ht-system-review.html for details on the review.
The review, naturally, did not sit well with Ashish. He immediately contacted Ram and me for a second meeting and a demonstration under his guidance. Unfortunately Ram was very busy and Ashish was travelling between Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, and the US. We had to wait for nearly 9 months before I could meet Ashish. I did meet him today, though for a brief 60 odd minutes. Here is what we discussed.
A Little Background First
Ashish did a BE in Electrical Engineering from VJTI and then went on to get a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University Of California in Santa Barbara. He specialized in DSP where he has gained a lot of expertise. His passion for research into sound started early. After his PhD, he led a team of 8 people and developed part of the algorithm and software for Apples iPod. This was in 2003. From 2003 to 2008 he worked with Harman International where he architected and developed whole home media network solutions, new audio algorithms and DSP software for high end systems, and media servers. He was directly or indirectly involved in the development of some of the best products that came out of the Harman group including JBL, Revel, Infinity, etc.
While at Harman a friend, who was also a PhD, threw a question at him that changed Ashishs life completely. His question was simple why are HT systems so complicated to set up and use? If I, as a PhD, find it difficult to install these systems, what will the status of simpler folks? he elaborated. As an end user, I just want to enjoy my music and movies, not play around with your systems, he concluded.
Ashish remembered his college days. As a grad scholar in Santa Barbara where there were very few Indians, Indian food was not easy to come by those days. So he built a complete HT system on a backpack including a projector, and he used to travel to houses of Indian acquaintances to show a bunch of guys a new movie and get tasty Indian lunch or dinner in return. He had to travel to LA many times from Santa Barbara to get his hands on new Indian and Hollywood DVDs. He used to be called Chalta Firtha HT.
In those 5 odd years, HT systems had got more sophisticated and more complicated. Connections were complex as was the wiring needed for speakers. You had to worry about wire gauge, impedance, resistance and a lot of other technologies. What his subsequent work at Harman showed him was that in pre-sales, nearly 60% of potential clients just walk away from a HT sale as too complicated. After just one experience of setup, 50% of HT owners never install the system again. And, you have some 300 multi-million dollar companies running after the remaining small number. In the US, a good installer will charge $200 an hour. In India also, installers charge a sizeable amount. 90% of the people who do not use professional help install their systems incorrectly.
Thinking about the issue, Ashish came down to two major points that needed to be fulfilled. One was that a HT system should be as simple as switching on a light bulb. Second, it should sound good.
First, the simplicity. To remove darkness, you switch on a light bulb. Can you remove audio darkness by switching on a speaker bulb?
Ashish initially came up with an idea for simplifying all this a universal cable. Using a networking principle, his idea was a router box that identified each input/output device that was connected in a manner similar to what happens in a computer, all using the same cable. The name? Synchronized Network Access Protocol or SNAP. The only issue was a hitch he came across immediately. How do you convince 300 odd devices manufacturers to fall in line and use his single connection methodology? His idea, SNAP, was dead before it started. After contemplating for a while and speaking to friend and well wishers, he decided to evolve a marketable product using the idea. The simplest was a powered speaker with networking capability. Thus the Violet was born.
But, there was an issue. If the speaker needed wires, there was actually no change from existing systems. Companies such as Meridian were already doing that. Ashish continued to be fascinated by the single box or router concept. Why not receive all signals into a simple box, and then network the powered speakers to the box? Why not remove the wires completely? The concept of the current Violet System had taken birth completely.
With wireless, the first issue was jitter in data transmission. Sound was being transmitted as a packet. The timing and packet accuracy was essential to ensure that there was no jitter. Ashish worked on complicated DSP to set up a two way signaling between the box and each speaker to ensure accuracy of data transmission. He managed to take each speakers efficiency upto 200 pico seconds. Ashish ended up with a huge speaker box that had a PC inside, an amplifier, and a single speaker driver inside. Obviously this was an unwieldy system, but it was processing signals perfectly.
Simplicity has been solved. What about good sound?
Ashish was a little weary of asking audiophiles what good sound was. That was not the market he was looking at. He wanted a mass market answer, and the one he got was that a cinema hall sounded good. Another answer was that Bose sounded good. From an initial dislike for Bose, Ashish decided to take their achievements more seriously and see what they had done.
He went back to the drawing board. He placed a speaker inside an anechoic chamber and tested it on-axis and off-axis for frequency, distortion, and coloration. He then used the same speaker and did a blind test with a few friends. The results were different from each other by a huge margin. This was for a single speaker. Then he came across another idea. He tested the speakers for a 5.1 and, surprisingly, the differences disappeared completely. It was at this instance that he realized that Boses Direct/Reflecting speakers system was achieving this by creating a sound wave close to that of an omni-directional speaker. Directional speakers need to be phase aligned for a particular hearing position. Omni-directional speakers, on the other hand, are coherent across the room. The Violet speakers take Boses concept one step further. Using omni-directional speakers, Ashish created an infinite wave system that filled the room with sound and made the speakers disappear completely.
Ashish had now solved both issues simplicity and good sound. The Violet system has a simple box as a central router that can talk to any number of powered speakers that can be placed anywhere in the room.
He still had one issue to solve. And that was to make the product of a size that was simple to install and pleasant to look at. Obviously it cannot have a PC inside. But that was an easy problem to solve. All the DSP done by the PC could be written onto a single microprocessor. The larger and more difficult problem to solve was the speaker driver. Ashish did not like the concept of directional speakers that forced you to sit at one place, place the speakers at a particular place, and do minute adjustments to the speaker directions to get good sound. He wanted his speakers to be placed randomly across the room, he wanted you to have the freedom to sit anywhere and yet get good sound. So he switched to omni- directional speakers. He wrote the DSP into a silicon ship, he developed a small amplifier, shaped the speaker like a light bulb, and you have the Violet speakers. Connection was as simple as plugging a light bulb. He even created two light bulb sockets one that can be placed on the ground or hung from the ceiling and another that can be hung on the wall.
Ashish had started the company with the help, blessings and funding from relations, and a few friends. Even after proving such a concept, Ashish failed to excite the community to fund his vision. When they saw Ashish proudly displaying the huge box, they were disappointed with what he had created and decided to back out politely, and so did the other co-founders. Ashish was now left alone with an idea he knew could be taken to the next stage. Ashish reformed the current team, stretched every rupee he could and took the idea to production and then to the market.
The Present and Future
The product that Ram, I and others had reviewed was literally version 1 of the Violet system. Our review made Ashish go back to the drawing board a little. Since the whole development was being done in India, he was finding it difficult to get a individual or a company to design a good sub woofer for him, As a DSP specialist himself, he was getting frustrated with the response and results from Indian designers. So he ended up in China and located a manufacturer who could design a good sub, and also incorporate Ashishs DSP and amplifier concepts inside.
What is in the market now can be called version 3 with a vastly improved sub woofer that provides a stronger and deeper low frequency sound.
I still had one issue with Ashish. How did he plan to solve the Codec issues and what about the connection between the player and the Violet box? Currently you have two options. One is to set up a digital connection using a coaxial digital and get just Dolby Digital sound. That is what the Violet has license for. The other option is to let the player decode and connect using 6 analog cables. The second method is a bit unwieldy, and kills Ashishs original need of simplicity. Ashish does not want to complicate his box by adding more decoders. Each decoding costs $14 per piece, and adds to the cost!
Enter HDMI 1.4. According to The Blu-Ray forum, all Blu-Ray players with HDMI 1.4 are mandated to decode all audio signals. The Violet version 4 will have a HDMI 1.4 input and can be connected to a Blu-Ray player easily. When this happens, Ashish feels the AVR will become redundant completely. That is his objective to eliminate the AVR completely. A bold plan, half of which he has already achieved.
Next step, Ashish said, will be to make the player obsolete. He mentioned two emerging trends to do this. One is web based sites such as Netflix that allowed you to pay for and play a movie from a centralized server. The second was the introduction of solid state drives. 1 TB solid state drives are working in R&D labs, and something like 250GB have emerged in the market. Imagine going to a shop, picking up an empty 50 GB solid state drive, choosing the movie you want to see, and getting it written onto your drive in a few seconds? Bring that home, and insert it into a slot on your Violet box. And you are watching a Blu-Ray movie without any optical media.
Interesting, I thought. Will really be a wonderful world, I am sure. Something close to what they show in Superman movies and in Star Trek. In Star Trek, data is stored in three dimensions on a long crystal. You insert the crystal into a reader, and multiple laser beams read the data from three planes. I know for a fact that such a device exists, and is just a few years away from being marketed.
Ashish has taken a second mortgage on his house to fund SNAP Networks. His wife continues to work in the US. He has had two children in the three and half years he has spent in setting up and running SNAP Networks. That is the passion he has for his ideas and products.
Looked at from a different perspective - simplicity and good sound - the Violet system is brilliant. Ashish needs to be praised as well as helped to become successful.
Ashishs journey and that of SNAP Netwroks has been one of true commitment and grit. First was proof of concept from wireless and audio quality. Then came miniaturization. Their angel investors have supported them all the way. It is the external investors that shied away and the three other co-founders that left the journey. Only Mr. Bhaita (their Chairman) and Ashish stayed on the course. Through all this he also added a 3 year and a 9 month old baby to his family.
Ashishs Indian operations consist of 30 odd R&D engineers. He has a production facility in Bangalore as well as sub contractors from whom he gets various parts of the system manufactured. In spite of being very patient, he could not get any Indian company to re-design his sub, and had to go to China for that.
Something tells me he is sitting on a gold mine. He has already sold 500 odd systems in India. He has seen people picking up the Violet system in direct competition with Bose systems. He is now working on expanding his market reach through retailers such as Chroma. In my initial review, this was the route I had suggested.
The concept of Violet is to trust devices instead of people. Pick up a system packed in a box with a handle, place the bulb holders where it makes sense for aesthetics, insert the speaker bulbs, connect the main box to a player with an HDMI 1.4 cable, and you have a home theatre ready. How much time should that take? 30 minutes? No room acoustics, no worrying about cabling, no change to all your precious stuff in the room. If you dont have place on the floor, just hang the bulb holders on the wall or even from the ceiling.
He has my complete support. Well done Ashish.
Ashishs next idea? How about a 2 inch cube that can generate 100dB of sound? Sounds impossible? Not with Ashish.
George, can you take this one step further and visit Ashish in his R&D and office? I would like to see some snaps and also get a different perspective.
Cheers
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), if it tries to sell through Croma/Reliance marts, it will not be noticed by the market as the market is flooded with cheap and compact units from china and other local brands. People will weigh this also in that category, nobody will think about the technology behind it since the normal mass will think that "afterall its only a speaker". I dont think even Bose will not be widely accepted if it is sold through these outlets.
