SilentArena
The Challenge
A leading silent disco provider, SilentArena, wanted to capitalise on the trend for silent discos allowing people to choose what music they to listen via wireless headphones when played by competing DJ’s. To succeed in this market they not only needed to cost effectively mass produce wireless headphones, but also wanted to introduce a competitive advantage.
The Solution
Like the GX, SilentArena is based in Wales and they collaborated on the project to design and engineer an optical band to change colour according to which DJ was being listened to. This gave SilentArena the USP they were looking for, as well as creating a visual experience at the silent discos. Throughout the project, the product design team at GX paid particular attention to the cost of each component; from the moulding of the headphones, optimum use of materials, through to the printed circuit boards used to power the LED’s, to ensure their proposed product design resulted in the lowest manufacturing costs possible.
The Result
Most of the headphone is constructed from one moulding using a material that is optically tailored to spread the light of tiny LEDs, but that still is still flexible and tough enough so that the final product will not break or craze despite the consistent use it would receive. Using the absolute minimum number of LED’s in the headband to generate the three different colours, allowed the design team at GX to keep pcb size to a minimum, not only reducing manufacturing costs, but most importantly prolonging the battery life between recharges.