SMPS SFBAC Sponsor Spotlight: Salter
By Tina Barni Aday
Recently I had a chance to touch base with Erin Lopez, Marketing Manager at Salter, and ask her a few questions about her firm, which is one of our Silverado sponsors.
Tell us about your firm and services.
Salter consults on over 900 projects worldwide each year with headquarters in San Francisco and branch offices in San Jose, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Seattle. In 1975, Charles Salter founded the company on principles of sound engineering, scientific process, inquisitive problem solving, and personal integrity. His motto was simple: to be better every day. Having grown from one engineer to a team of 50 that includes acoustical, audiovisual, telecommunications, and security experts, that commitment remains the same.
At Salter, our legacy is more than 45 years of award-winning projects. We are a team of Professional Engineers, LEED Accredited Professionals, Certified Technology Specialists, Registered Communications Distribution Designers, Fellows of the Audio Engineering Society, and Fellows of the Acoustical Society of America. Our in-house talent comes from interdisciplinary and advanced degrees in engineering, architecture, music, linguistics, business, and forensics. We stand on the foundation of our hard-won reputation while looking forward with curiosity and commitment.
How many years have you been in business?
47 Years
Tell us about some notable projects.
San Diego Symphony Rady Shell at Jacobs Park
Salter was invited to design and consult on the acoustics and technology systems for The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, a one-of-a-kind multipurpose musical venue on San Diego Bay. The installed systems combine perfectly to provide an audibly flawless and breathtaking outdoor experience for its audience and musicians, and these systems include:
- Meyer Sound Constellation System, comprising multiple microphones hanging above the musicians and loudspeakers arrayed above and around the orchestra, allowing the musicians to hear one another, even from opposite sides of the stage, improving their overall performance.
- The L-Acoustics Sound Reinforcement System, consisting of directional vertical loudspeaker arrays, delay and surround loudspeakers and directional low-frequency subwoofer arrays, lessens the overall community noise impact, directing performance sound onto the audience.
- Three automated community sound monitoring stations, at the sound mix location, near the rear fence of the venue, and across San Diego Bay on Coronado Island provide 24/7/365 sound data and audio files to a venue server.
- In addition, marine-grade devices and enclosures had to be specified to withstand corrosion from the surrounding saltwater environment.
Bakar BioEnginuity Hub
Previously the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMFA), the new Bakar BioEnginuity Hub required a substantial renovation to become today’s award-winning state-of-the-art facility. Constructed mostly of concrete and glass, which presented acoustical and infrastructure challenges, the 40,000-square-foot building includes laboratories, open office areas, conference rooms, an auditorium, and more. With Salter’s acoustical and audiovisual consulting work, students and researchers are now able to make scientific developments and discoveries in a safe and modern space.
What differentiates your firm in terms of approach, talent, tools, and values?
We’re not just engineers—we’re people helping people. Beyond expertise, our success is measured by how well we translate complex engineering into language anyone can understand. We ask questions until we get clarity, uncovering design options and delivering experience-based recommendations with a human touch. Charles Salter is the first one to work each morning, greeting everyone who walks through the door and taking interest in their current projects. That’s why people say Salter is like family: we go out of our way to help each other. Our team unites around values of dedication, creativity, and fun.
How long have you been a sponsor of SMPS?
For many years! Salter has been supporting SMPS SFBAC since its inception.
What are some of the memorable or key events of SMPS that your firm has been involved with?
A long-time supporter of SMPS, Charles Salter encourages his marketers to be involved with the organization. I joined SMPS a year after starting at Salter and have volunteered on the Membership and Programs Committees. Chelsea Hall, our Marketing Coordinator, joined SMPS last year and was recently featured on SMPS’s Member Spotlight. We’ve won several local and national SMPS marketing awards for our holiday videos, which we create in-house to showcase the talents of our staff. Speaking of holidays, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting the SFBAC holiday party in our office! This year we were so proud to attend the Topaz Awards to witness the first-ever awarding of the Catherine F. Spurlock Volunteer of the Year Award.
Tina Barni Aday is the Marketing Director at Lea & Braze Engineering. She writes for the Shortlist and is on the SMPS SF Communications Committee. She can be reached at [email protected].
