Text: Mira-Monica Anttila / Photo: A-P Keränen
14 Awareness
Awareness
Successful product development ensured by
a team of multi-experts Finns are technology-oriented so they often perceive product development as a technical process. Anssi Hyvönen takes a broader view. Anssi Hyvönen, Managing Director of Amphion Loudspeakers, a Finnish company that manufactures sound reproduction equipment, has a lot of experience of product development issues. Amphion was founded 12 years ago. The aim from the very start has been to offer genuine, relaxing experiences in the home without major investment or the need to turn the furnishings upside down. The company has devoted time and money to product development from the very beginning. The path of a working loudspeaker from drawing board to living room is often long and complicated. Amphion has also made decisions that seem irrational from an economic point of view, but which are important to a growth-oriented company for demonstrating competence. “Perhaps the best example is our flagship project Krypton. We have been involved with Krypton since our foundation and the project, we hope, will now reach the final stage,” Hyvönen says. Amphion’s products have received many of the most renowned awards in the field, and the company has also been praised for its design efforts. All this and
Amphion’s success in tests show that its product development efforts have paid off. “I believe every company that focuses on product development needs to be put to the test. This will ensure that product development remains active and does not become routine,” Hyvönen says, encouragingly.
The laws of physics will not change Time and again over the past decades digital technology and other technological development have revolutionised product development across a number of fields. These changes have not had any major impact on Amphion’s operation. The laws of physics have remained the same so the company knows exactly what it takes to make a good loudspeaker. Although modelling and simulation software have developed by leaps and bounds in the last few years, Amphion also relies on traditional methods. In the end, what really matters is how the loudspeaker works in the customer’s home.
“We refine the last few millimetres using a 1:1 scale model and make all decisions concerning the final balancing of the loudspeaker by ear. Of course, we do not underestimate the use of technological means. But I believe that no matter how brilliant the engineer, he or she could never sensibly imagine coming up with measuring equipment more discerning than the human ear or the other senses,” Hyvönen concludes. Among other things, Amphion uses technology to model the flow and resonance of casings, which are made in Switzerland. Amphion has a broad partner network extending from California to India and from Switzerland to China. “Making top-quality loudspeakers always requires a deeper and more profound understanding of the whole sound reproduction chain. This is why we collaborate with musicians, recording engineers and microphone and cable manufacturers,” Hyvönen says.
Seeing the wood for the trees According to Hyvönen, the greatest challenges in international cooperation and internationalisation relate to communications. The possibility of misunderstanding increases with distance. Hyvönen believes that successful product development should be part of the company’s core business. However, project management must be aware of what is being developed, why, and for whom, in order to ensure the product has commercial use. “It often happens that while the company is making fine, innovative, creative decisions, market trends are forcing it in a direction where inventions have no role,” Hyvönen points out. A good product development team must have experts from several fields in order for the outcome to be creative, sensible and operative. Customer needs can
best be addressed when the products of different manufacturers are combined successfully. “Strong specialisation tends easily towards narrowing down the viewpoint from which one sees things. I think it is a lot to expect of an engineer specialised in a certain area to resolve problems that fall outside the scope of his or her capabilities,” Hyvönen says. Amphion takes a human-oriented attitude towards business and uses common sense. Product development is full of choices that one deals with rationally and with a view to facilitating the use of the end product. “When you use common sense, it is easier to see the wood for the trees and develop products that only contain the essential,” Hyvönen specifies.
Towards more relaxed everyday life Amphion seeks to pursue the following philosophy in its business: “Real quality reduces anxiety, preserves nature and cuts costs in the long term.” Hyvönen has personal experience of this. When he was 14, his father allowed him to purchase the sound reproduction equipment for the family. A sharp ear and an acoustic memory still help him in product development and they also helped him choose
the right equipment three decades ago – equipment that his family uses to this day. Of course, the loudspeakers are not original. Hyvönen has always been fascinated with sounds, especially those of nature.
“One of the most impressive sound experiences that I can recall was the tinkling of ice fragments in a hole in the spring ice, which I listened to with my ears five centimetres from the surface of the water. I can assure you, that sound gives you cold vibrations and goose bumps,” Hyvönen recalls. Hyvönen became hooked on sound reproduction and the experiences it can convey when he was in Asia in the 1990s. He lived there for about ten years. “Sound reproduction there has been taken into a whole new dimension: we might describe it as a modern tea ceremony that takes away everyday concerns and reduce stress. Although calming nature is much closer in Finland than in Asia, I believe that with pure sound people’s everyday lives could be improved considerably here, too,” Hyvönen says.
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