Whoops! Sucks to be Behringer (again)
There is a German company - Behringer - that makes very cheap but reasonable quality commercial music and audio components. I have a few of their pieces and they work well.
They were the subject of a major lawsuit a few years ago when the copied several of Greg Makie's Mixer patented circuit designs, had them fabbed out in China and then proceeded to sell them at about half the price of the Makie units. The quality was a lot less -- decent audio but very fragile components, easy to break.
Now it seems that they are in trouble again, this time with the FCC.
From
Radio Magazine:
FCC Issues NAL Against Behringer for $1 Million
The FCC proposed a $1 million fine against Behringer USA for apparent violation of the FCC's equipment authorization rules. The Commission concluded that Behringer violated the FCC's rules by marketing in the United States at least 50 models of unauthorized digital audio devices. The rules require that these devices are tested and verified to be compliant with FCC technical standards prior to marketing them in the United States.
In proposing its forfeiture amount, the Commission considered that Behringer marketed the unauthorized devices for more than five years overall and for almost a year after it was on notice of the FCC's investigation, and that Behringer derived substantial financial gain from the sale of the unauthorized devices.
The equipment found to be in violation of the FCC rules includes audio processors, equalizers, mic preamps, sample-rate converters, mixers, amplifiers and lighting controllers.
Read the notice of apparent liability at hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-13A1.doc.
What this boils down to is that they made devices that had circuitry that operated in the same frequency ranges that commercial radio services use. When someone wants to make such a device and sell it in the USA, they need to have a certified Engineering lab test it and report that it doesn't emit enough of a signal to interfere with these services or cause any other unintended problems (pacemakers, etc...).
Uli Behringer decided not to do this and it turns out that his stuff lit up like a lightbulb. They were warned in 2004 but they still continued marketing the stuff to the US and they did not try to make any changes to limit this radiation.
No mention of this
on their website -- it will be interesting to see what of their products get pulled and re-introduced.
Posted by DaveH at February 27, 2006 8:05 PM