PORTABLE AUDIO DEVICE

 

Portable Audio


HARRI KOSKINEN

harri[at]harrikoskinen.com
www.harrikoskinen.com

In collaboration with:
GENELEC Finland

 

Harri Koskinen has designed a concept for a portable set of high-quality audio equipment placed inside of a briefcase. It is an innovative proposition intended primarily for audio professionals’ use for out-of-the-studio sound control and reproduction. For the non-pro users, it could provide much better sound quality than existing portable devices. The concept has been developed in collaboration with Genelec and Ilpo Martikainen, the founder of this world renowned Finnish company that produces high-end loudspeakers. The basis for the project has been to find out how much space high quality equipment needs at the minimum.

The briefcase holds two active loudspeakers by Genelec and a CD player to act as a sound source, and space for discs. To use the device, the briefcase is first opened, the satellite-like loudspeakers are taken out and the brief case is closed again. The closed briefcase acts as a subwoofer. The prototype operates with both 220V and 110V line current. The innovations of the project are the portable format and the briefcase itself. The technical components were developed earlier for other Genelec products. The Sauma exhibition provided a good impetus to develop the idea further in order to turn it into a product.

Before this portable audio device, Harri Koskinen has worked with Genelec in three earlier projects since 1999. Koskinen thinks that the collaboration with Genelec offers a great opportunity for a music lover to get involved in the production process and to learn something new with every project. What counts in evaluating the success of the final product is not the design of the case but the quality of its sound reproduction, along with how it functions and how convenient it is.

Genelec is specialized in studio-level audio reproduction. The high-end home theater market is a recent addition. The company has been the first to develop many of the key technologies in use today in studio monitor loudspeakers. Its world leading position in the field of audio engineering is the result of the commitment to follow scientific and acoustic design principles in research and development. Genelec products are distributed in over 50 countries around the world.

Harri Koskinen established his studio Friends of Industry Ltd. in Helsinki in 2000. His impressive list of clients includes companies such as Artek, Design House Stockholm, iittala, Issey Miyake, Muji, Panasonic, Seiko Instruments, Swarovski and Venini. He has works in the permanent collections of both the Design Museum in Helsinki and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2004 he received the Compasso d’Oro prize for the Muu chair that he designed for Montina. Koskinen focuses mainly on product design with a wide range of materials. He has also worked as an exhibition designer, e.g. for the current Sauma Exhibition.

Summary in Finnish