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MARKET RESEARCH
OUTDOOR SPEAKER'S
OBSERVATIONS
Understanding the existing outdoor speakers
Small enough for your bag Most of the outdoor speakers are compact in sizes and can be carried around easily, the most important feature of outdoor speakers is its portability.
Big enough to sound when speakers are used indoor they waves rebounds from walls and can have big sound but outdoor it needs to have enough sound to be heard clearly.
Tough enough for your travels – IPX7 Water Resistant while using it outdoors speakers go through a lot of wear and tear, so the another most important features it should have is to resist water and robust body.
Cool style it should have trendy looks and the design should blend with the surrounding.
INSIGHTS
In depth study of the existing speakers
Material used
- Plastic From the most inexpensive styrene to mid-grade ABS, plastic enclosures have high levels of breakthrough. Higher sound transmission loss is the measure of how good a barrier the enclosure is to prevent sound from passing outside the enclosure. When driven hard, cheap plastics contribute too much of their own “self-noise” (rattle resonances and creaking stress noise), further degrading sound quality, the “acoustic aesthetics.”
- Rubber most of the outdoor speakers are integrated with rubber dampers on the side or the surface where it touches ground for protection of the speaker, also it acts as dampers in case of a fall the other reason is anti-skid when placed on smooth surfaces.
- Fabric Speaker panel fabric is a polyester mix fabric widely used for speaker covers and large areas of paneling, as the name suggests, but can be used for all sorts of practical and creative projects. The fabric is made into a smart but lose weave cloth which has a fine grid like appearance that is noticeable up close. Speaker fabric is designed specifically to cover the surface of a speaker so it will look more aesthetically pleasing. Of course the sound cannot be blocked at all therefore the fabric needs to be made from a relatively loose weave so waves of sound can pass through.
OBSERVATIONS
Understanding the existing outdoor speakers
SOCIALIZER’S
On the go listeners looking for high quality of sound with ease of use that can connect to all devices easily.
20 %
Of the UK’s market
18- 34
Years Old age
They always play music when hanging out with friends, while commute, at home or when need to focus on work.
They want easy connectivity to their mobile devices and are looking for new playlist releases on spotify.
They are more likely to buy the outdoor speakers
KEY FEATURES
Light and LED indicators are used to indicate various functions for easy of understanding.
It should have Bluetooth and wifi pairing options
Outdoor speakers are treated with tough environment and there is a lot of wear and tear, so they are expected to have robust build quality which can handle most of it while giving a product long life.
The control interface should be user friendly and easy to use. It should be simple in understanding and minimal to explaining its working.
Connectivity is one of the most important function a speaker should have so to connect to other devices irrespective of type of connecting methods and should connect among similar devices for greater sound.
Design is an important feature for a speaker, most socializer tend to buy the speaker based on the looks and quality of the speaker
A speaker's battery life is the largest factor in its overall battery performance. If you like using your speaker outside or even just around the house, it's nice not to worry about it running out of charge too quickly.
Audio quality is not just considered by the types if speakers used but also by the plastic used for enclosure. Enclosures should suppress vibrations that ripple through them and provide higher sound transmission loss
Bio
Shubham is design engineer and works at Lucid Motors. He lives alone in a studio apartment in California,USA. He loves music and spend most of the time listening to music and podcast over the wireless speakers while at home . During weekend he has friends over his house or he goes to visit friends and they hangout together over food and music.
PERSONA
Pains
- Connectivity issues
- Battery life
- Indoor speakers cant be used for outdoor activities
- Cant find volume buttons on speakers easily
Expectations
- Louder sound
- APP integrated features
- Easy one step connectivity
- Design that can blend indoors and outdoors
- Easy to carry
Influences
- Online advertising
- Friends
- Trends
- Sound Quality
- Design/Looks
Shubham Chotia
25 Y/O
Design Engineer
USA
Single
Early Adopters
Scenario
Shubham had a party planned for a weekend and the music and food was important part of it, his friends wanted to play their playlist but they couldn't figure out how to connect and also the sound was not enough once the house was full with people.
UNDERSTANDING ROBERSTS SPEAKERS
Iconic chrome finish with matte surface body. The curved edges and very minimal shape with interesting colors range
Main function buttons are on the top with radial chrome finish. LED indicators are used to indicate the functionality in use
The LOGO stays in front which shows Roberts brand.
It has its iconic chrome finish which is carried along in all roberts products
The sustainably sourced, 100% recyclable cardboard and paper packaging is completely plastic-free.
IDEA DEVELOPMENT
Roberts Outdoor Speaker
The design is inspired and evolved from the existing beacon speakers targeted to be designed mostly for outdoor purpose.
The Speaker build is robust and can handle most of the outdoor activities, It has iconic roberts gold chrome finish that speaks for the brand identity of Roberts.
FINAL CONCEPT
All the joints are sealed in a way that makes the speaker water resistant and dust proof giving it ratings of IPX7.
Speakers can support most of the connectors and can be paired with all types of devices.
The speaker is made for loud and clear sound, IT has 360 audio made by 3 speakers and a tweeter for rich and clear audio and a passive radiator for deeper bass
The rubber flap provide protection to the ports as well as acts as an flat base while using speaker horizontally.
The Flap acts as flat surface to prevent wobble when placed horizontally
The speakers can be attached to a carry on band via hooks
The logo is itself a button which when pressed can play your favorite spotify playlist. The functionality of this button can be changed in an APP
Roberts APP
The APP is designed to connect to any roberts apps easily, Once app is on you can find all the roberts devices to connect to and this devices can be powered ON via app. The app can perform the basic functionalities like volume control, Pairing , Association of playlist to the LOGO button and turning ON and OFF of speakers wireless.
MATERIAL SELECTION AND SUSTAINABILITY
As we saw the most of the outdoor speakers are made out of plastic, rubber and fiber. But while we talk about sustainability there is a lot that needs to be considered.
For example :
Sustainability can be thought from the process where the minerals are mined to form the metal and magnets that are used in a speaker. It can be considered during the transportation process of raw material till a finished products are received to end user.
Talking about plastic substitute:
Trēva is a USDA Certified Bio based polymer that offers excellent acoustic properties in addition to the durability, chemical resistance and process ability required for engineered applications in consumer electronic devices.
Every Sound producing product consist of 1 or more than 2 speakers, this are coned shaped and mostly made out of plastic or paper, To eliminate or replace this material can help in making the product more sustainable.
Audio performance can be improved by adding bast family fibers (such as banana leaf and hemp fiber) and other renewable organic fibers. Fostex and Dai-Ichi are known for their use of banana leaf fibers due to the high tensile strength in their high-quality cones.
Right to Repair
If a product can be repaired it would not be tossed so quickly and therefore not need to be replaced. An example is a headphone in which the connectors on both ends of the cable could be removed and replaced so the headset does not need to be tossed when the cable becomes intermittent.
Eco-Friendly Packaging
Green packaging for your product can be a combination of recycled materials and minimizing the volume of packaging materials. Aside from recycled paper packaging, you might consider bamboo paper/cardboard materials.
MANUFACTURING PROCESS INVOLVED
Injection moulding is a manufacturing process that allows for parts to be produced in large volumes. It works by injecting molten materials into a mould (or 'mold' in the United States). It is typically used as a mass production process to manufacture thousands of identical items.
Plastics dominate consumer products today. The usual injection-molded plastic thin-wall construction found in today’s soundbars, in-wall speakers and low-cost home theater systems are marginally adequate. Most audio engineers are unhappy with the hollow, buzzy sound that comes from plastic speaker enclosures. Injection-molded, thin-wall lightweight plastics provide designers with more flexibility to achieve aesthetic and efficient assembly goals, but at the expense of sonic integrity. Bluetooth speakers, in-wall and ceiling speakers, headphones and earphones, and smart-speakers are typically injection-molded plastic. ABS, HIPS, PC, Poly, and other plain materials dominate today’s speaker enclosure products.
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