Ortho-Directional (OD) speaker was first introduced by a Swedish man named Stig Carlsson, built to be placed toward a wall, bouncing sound and filling a room. This was a technology far ahead of its time.
Omni-Directive (ortho-directional)
I wanted a speaker that could fit in a near future, a far more brutalist form, and something uncommon for a speaker. I've been highly interested in the cyberpunk realm, a dystopia with exciting design potential. This sparked a challenge to take an existing product and try to make it fit in that world.
These themes stem from video games like Cyberpunk 2077, illustrators such as Syd Mead, Moebius, Daniel Simon, and John Harris, as well as movies like Tron, Blade Runner, and Star Wars.
Origin
Stig Carlsson was a pioneering Swedish audio engineer who transformed loudspeaker design by focusing on how speakers interact with real domestic spaces. He developed the concept of "orthoacoustics," leading to innovative speakers like the OA-5 and OD-11, which utilized upward-firing drivers to create a spacious soundstage suitable for typical living rooms. Carlsson's designs emphasized natural sound reproduction and influenced modern audio engineering, with his legacy continuing through contemporary adaptations such as Teenage Engineering's OD-11 Cloud Speaker.
To the right of my prototype lies its older brother, the Sonab OA-14. This was one of Carlsson's most successful products. Placed in the corner of a room, the sound fills the entire room with crisp and clear audio, a surreal experience for something that was built decades ago the 70s
- OD-11 Wireless Speaker, Teenage Engineering
- EP-1320 Medieval, Teenage Engineering
Inspiration, Why
Teenage Engineering recently did a medieval theme for one of their hand-held audio synthesizers, this got me thinking about what their next theme could be...
Artists like Syd Mead and Moebius have been a massive inspiration for me recently. Futurism as a practice has always excited me about what our lives could look like. I wanted to create something that fit this bill. I wanted to create a look that felt fresh, and that elicited curiosity.
I love music, I believe a great song can break a layer of ice in the room. The first song someone plays tells you so much about a them without them having to say anything. If this speaker was a song it would be "Angel - Massive Attack"
- Syd Mead
