Friday 23 October 2009

Time flies...

Wow! it's been 2 weeks since my last post... boy did time fly!

To be honest I can't really remember all that I did last 2 weeks... it went like a blurr... Oh yes we went to the SetSquared event in at the ICE London last week... no! the week before!!! and it was a really good experience... and what a place the Civil Engineers have in London just next to Big Ben! We met lots of very interesting people while exhibiting our business and then listened to 6 finalist's presentation... and then back to more exhibiting... and bigging ourselves up! Okay that was 2 days accounted for... the rest is still a mystery lol...

Morpheus at the SetSquared event in at the ICE London
Photography by André Regini, Kingbridge Photographic - www.kingbridge.co.uk

Oh yes, we have tested our latest prototype for about 4 weeks now, all going well and looks like we have almost finalised its specifications now... What is it? Well, watch this space around CES time cos I ain't telling! Oh yes, that reminded me, I was working on the exterior design and at the same time preparing for a day visiting customers in Birmingham and Dorking the following week...

Meanwhile back at HQ..., we're taking turns in building our orders. Business has been slow in the summer months but as expected, it picked up quite a bit in mid September with an order on almost every product in our range! Interestingly the biggest seller of this lot is the Sedley USB phono stage! Good to see something we designed back in 1998 (USB update added in 2005) is still doing tremendously well :o)

More later...

Sunday 11 October 2009

Less is definitely more.

Been having a quiet weekend apart from the excitement of having a near disaster with a burst water main at 1 a.m. outside my home! Today I am chilling, getting ready for a busy week ahead for Sonneteer where personally I need to get some ideas on paper by hook or by crook...

Part of any project development is to set out a list of goal functions that the new product must have, nice to have and whatever it can also have. However it is far too easy to over do it just for the sake of having it. Think of it this way, I am at home listening to my Morpheus: It's got over 16,000 channels, 10 presets, linked up to my Buffalo network drive with all my album collections in it... but I am just listening to one of my 3 favourite radio stations online.

Unlike other systems out there, to access all these functions is no more difficult than use than a 90's car stereo, designed to be easily controlled while you are doing something more important. In a car that would be driving, with the Morpheus, that would be listening to your favourite tunes. On the Morpheus there are no fancy graphics, no touch screen, or computers required to work with it. In fact the display of the Morpheus can be programmed so that it switches off after 30 seconds and let you enjoy what you bought the unit for- the music (technically that also improves the sound quality).

One thing that I really like is the remote control for the Morpheus. We did not want to rely on a touch screen thing that you need to look at it every time you want to press a button, or having to charge it daily like a mobile phone. So the Morpheus remote have proper buttons so that after a few days usage you will be using it without even looking at it, and it only needs charging up around once every 6-12 months -from any USB port, including the one on the Morpheus. The battery cycle based on normal usage should last you over 150 years...




So all functions and no gimmicks right? "Erm... but the Morpheus remote has a powerful torch built in*, isn't that a gimmick?" Well, think what you like but when I had that burst water mains incident last night... while all my neighbours were scrambling to find a working torch, I knew exactly where mine was... and it wasn't flat either!

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WARNING: Tech Speak!
*For the internal rechargeable battery to last as long as it does, occasionally the battery needs to be subjected to a higher discharge rate than the remote control function can muster. So this gimmicky torch is actually there to wake up the battery every now and then... giving it some exercise! :o)

WARNING: Geek Speak!
A note for the techno-junkies who wants touch screen network control... I would suggest you to buy an i-Pod touch if you haven't got several already. Then spend $5 on a piece of software called the plugplayer (link: http://www.plugplayer.com/) and you can control your Morpheus, arrange play lists etc from a different room, if that's what you really want to do.




Monday 5 October 2009

Altaniuminuminuminum..???

Had the pleasure of meeting a certain Mr. Nicholas Shrager last friday at the "W Surrey and NE Hants Innovation & Growth" breakfast seminars learning about how to take your design beyond prototype. There were all sorts of innovators there with their ideas in different stages of development... So what did Mr. Shrager do?

He came up with a new metal call Altanium and if I recalled it correctly, it's stronger and than steel and lighter than Aluminium too. "Wow!" I said. Realising that I was sounding like a geek I then muttered: "Interesting..."... Fortunately Mr. Shrager then started to tell me in detail about this new metal and all its capabilities and yes, it did deserved a "Wow". I guess he's got my attention! Its application is huge and the befefits are real.

From a very young age I have been constantly introduced to new raw materials by my father, an artists of any medium (pic: Stainless Pegasus in Hong Kong by Antonio Casadei), and he kept bringing home new materials to mess about with. He has made stuff from just about any materials you can possible imagine and when he ran out of stuff to try, he created them from scratch! Every time he sees something new, you can hear his mind buzzing away already... It's a bit like the joke about when a Chinese person is watching a wild life documentary, the only thing he or she is thinking about is how to cook them! Well, I'm a bit like that too... and same goes with materials... ;o)

Mr. Shrager then handed me a sample of Altanium - a piece of pipe, grey anodised. My immediate reaction was: "this needs to be Blinged-Up man!"... Even though the heavy industrial application of this metal is huge, I can't help thinking how to make this material look the business, and it wasn't long before I started coming out with all sorts of objects in my mind... a watch, a brake component, a pinion etc... or as Mr Shrager suggested: a tyre stud, but on a key ring, highly polished and with Altanium stamped on it :o)

Wonder if I can use this metal in Sonneteer ;o)

Hopefully I will be catching up with Nick soon and have a beer and see how his creation is coming along...




Friday 2 October 2009

Back on the shelf...

While thinking about projects, I recall in the past I toyed with a clam shell shaped design, with a grill, milled from solid block for a smaller unit. Most of our stuff have been pretty straight and angular, so perhaps a dabble in the curved world isn't so bad... after all, the planet isn't flat right?

The only problem I have with rounded shapes is that they seem to age rather quickly, and often get the "Retro" tag which can work for or against it. Anyway the concept went on until when I got back from China and Haider shown me the PURE Sensia which pretty much knocked it on the head for me.

Other than that there are still remaining concerns that it may not be small enough and for some maybe a bit too retro. Personally, I just don't want it to look like a retro fan heater!