PS Engineering PAC45L for jets replaces legacy audio controls

The unit replaces legacy audio control systems built by companies that have “gone out of business or left the market, leaving gaps in support and upgrades,” the company wrote in a news release.

Key features for the Part 23/25 compliant audio panel include the company’s MultiTalker technology, a central hub for wiring audio, a navaid identifier filter, an oxygen mask button, Bluetooth audio, wired music input, and custom bezel labeling. An independently powered audio alert system can be programmed by users.

MultiTalker creates the perception that audio from different sources is coming from distinct locations relative to the listener, and has been praised for providing spatial intelligibility that allows pilots to prioritize audio information and to differentiate conversations. The company said the PAC45L system can place “three receivers into nine unique locations” in crewmembers’ headsets.

PS Engineering Vice President Gary Picou was the program lead for the $16,795 PAC45L device, which is available in gray or in black to match the color combination of most flight decks. Picou said the company wanted to enter the jet upgrade market for a “very long time” but first needed to make sure the audio specialty company co-founded by pilot and engineer Mark Scheuer in 1985  “had the right tools in place to serve the pilots, owners, installers, and maintainers.”

Although the economic slowdown from the coronavirus pandemic hit new jet sales hard, the previously owned jet market has remained strong. Aviation financial analyst Brian Foley said in December that pre-owned jet transactions at the end of 2020 were “on track to outpace” activity in 2019, and he predicted 2021 “will be another decent year for pre-owned as new deliveries try to claw back their 2020 delivery losses.”