Modelled on the corporate campus typical of Silicon Valley, the sprawling 50-acre complex will include R&D, manufacturing, a residential village and "abundant green space cultivated around the site's natural wetlands" and is to be completed by 2014. The investment comes at a time when the company's current Music Group City site is stretched to capacity with overwhelming demand for new products, including the l X32 Digital Mixer.
"It is my distinct pleasure to announce the fulfilment of a major objective of our group today with the start of this incredible undertaking," announced Uli Behringer to the gathered employees and dignitaries. "This new home will bring together our people from several different sites, our world-class manufacturing and integrated logistics teams into one environmentally sustainable location woven into the natural local landscape. My goal is to make this a place where talented people can attain their life goals without compromise."
The new campus will be home to nearly 5,000 employees and is to include over 3m sq.ft of automated factory space housing over 100 surface mount machines, automated transducer lines, injection moulding and hydro forming facilities and a total 'clean-air' wood products and painting pavilion.
The company's already extensive agency test labs will be expanded with additional RF and TDMA facilities and an all-new two-story anechoic chamber will be built for acoustical testing. The campus will also offer housing for almost 2,000 company employees and include on-site educational, child-care and health facilities.
Music Group has commissioned international consultants to advise on site development, liveability and environmental concerns to ensure long-term satisfaction for workers and minimal impact to the surrounding Eco-system. Working with Chinese officials the company aims to make this facility energy efficient and minimise its carbon footprint; something of a revolutionary concept in the industrial province of Guangdong. The stated mandate is to deliver a community where people can live, work and enjoy a quality of life that is as stimulating as it is rewarding, says the company.
(Jim Evans)
