Necessity Mothers Innovation

PS Engineering—the Tennessee-based maker of aviation audio components—has announced the release of it’s new PMA450C audio panel, a lower priced iteration of the company’s General Aviation flagship PMA450B, with which the new unit shares many functions.

The PMA450C offers aviators advanced features such as Bluetooth connectivity, four independent music inputs, and IntelliAudio, a USAF licensed, multi-directional sound processor that enhances cockpit communication by discretely positioning respective incoming transmissions across the pilot’s listening field—much as your old Quadraphonic stereo moved David Gilmour’s guitar from your right ear to your left.  

PS Engineering’s PMA450-series has been a top-shelf competitor in the aviation audio-panel market since its 2014 introduction. Today’s volatile market, however, engenders need for a lower-priced—but still highly capable—audio-panel option. Enter the PMA450C. Against a backdrop of ballooning inflation and consumer hesitancy, PS Engineering took supply-chain problems, labor shortages, and parts costs, added some solid engineering pressure, and turned out a gem.

To reduce the cost of the PMA450C while maintaining high functionality, PS engineering changed the device’s hardware in a manner that decreases the number of audio-perspectives from the PMA450B’s nine unique positions to the two most popular positions—ten-o-clock and two-o-clock.

Additional cost-savings measure PS Engineering undertook in designing the PMA450C were the removal of the company’s flightmate, audio streaming output; and its count-up/count-down timer. While the PMA450B retains said capabilities, not all pilots have need for customizable audio alert functions,

A feature that remains unchanged in the PMA450C is PS Engineering’s intuitive graphical user interface. The OLED display can be viewed by just about anyone in the cockpit, and with the unit’s 3-softkey selection, setting up the audio panel configuration retains its innate simplicity.

The PMA450C’s Bluetooth capability allows two completely independent devices to be paired and selected to listen to—just like its uptown, PMA450B cousin.

The PMA450C has a list price of only $2595, while the PMA450B continues to sell at $2895.

Founded in 1985, PS Engineering has become a leading manufacturer of both general aviation and special mission audio control systems. The company is credited with many innovations in the aerospace communication field, including its trademarked: IntelliAudio, IntelliVox, flightmate, MultiTalker, Softmute, Split mode, Swap Mode, and the IRS (Internal Recording System). What’s more, PS Engineering was the first avionics concern to integrate Bluetooth technology in its audio control systems.

FMI: www.ps-engineering.com