LONDON — The 2012 Queen’s Awards for Enterprise recognized 209 U.K. standouts in international trade, innovation and sustainable development, including several audio manufacturers. Among those honored: Allen & Heath, Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd. and Orange Music Electronic Co. Ltd. (for international trade) and B&W Group Ltd., Element Six Ltd. and Turbosound Ltd. (for innovation). Turbosound was recognized for its Polyhorn and Dendritic innovations, incorporated into the gear in use at the Royal Albert Hall, pictured here.
More details from Allen & Heath (www.allen-heath.com):
Pro audio mixer manufacturer, Allen & Heath, has received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category. The honor has been granted for the company’s outstanding achievement in export growth between 2008 and 2011, with overseas earnings growing by 64%, along with growth in turnover and profit.
This is the second time the veteran Cornish manufacturer has won a Queen’s Award, having previously been recognized in 1995 in the same category. The company’s GLD digital mixing system is pictured here.
“As a British company, we are thrilled to be recognized by the Queen’s Award Office once again. Since Allen & Heath’s inception in 1969, our goal has been to build a premium global brand, and the relationships we have formed with our distribution partners, which now number more than 80 across the globe, are key to our success,” comments Allen & Heath’s MD, Glenn Rogers. “Not only do we rely on this international network to spread the reach of the Allen & Heath brand but also to gather customer feedback, which influences our future product development.”
Allen & Heath started out providing mixing consoles for the bands Genesis, The Who and Pink Floyd. Now part of D&M Holdings Inc. Japan, its current portfolio covers a broad spectrum of the industry, with recent users including Adele, Morrissey, President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, ESPN Sports, Sasha and Pete Tong. Products include the brand-new GLD digital mixer, iLive digital mixing system, iDR installation series, Xone DJ range, ZED compact USB mixers, XB-14 dedicated broadcast console, GS-R24 and ZED-R16 recording mixers, GL multi-purpose series, MixWizard compact range and PA portable series.
More details from Focusrite (www.focusrite.com):
Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd., based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK, has been awarded the 2012 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category of International Trade. The Award follows three consecutive years of sustained growth in global business and market share for Focusrite, aided by the opening of offices in the United States and Germany over the period. This is the second time Focusrite have been honored with the Award, having collected the prize in the Innovation category in 2008.
Founder and Executive Chairman Phil Dudderidge commented on news of the Award: “This is a great recognition of the outstanding growth of our international business over the past three years, well over 100%. I would like to acknowledge not only the supreme efforts of our staff in the UK and abroad but also our distribution and retail partners and not least our hundreds of thousands of customers around the world who depend on Focusrite and Novation products in their music.”
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise were established in 1965 and are only given for the highest levels of excellence in the categories of Innovation, International Trade and Sustainable Development. To receive the Award in the category of International Trade, Focusrite showed a substantial and sustained increase in export earnings over three consecutive 12-month periods, to a level considered outstanding for the products and services concerned, and for the size of the organization.
Global Sales Director Damian Hawley added, “To receive this award for our outstanding International Trade results over the last few years is an honor and a real testament to the quality of our products. We would like to give a special mention to our teams worldwide: our offices in the UK, Germany and the USA together with our Territory Managers for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Asia-Pacific and Latin America. We would also like to acknowledge the exemplary work done by our global distribution partners in more than 80 countries, as well as all of our retail partners around the world for the massive level of support that they have shown the Focusrite and Novation brands over the last few years.”
More details from Orange Music Electronic Co. Ltd. (www.orangeamps.com):
Orange Music Electronic Company Ltd (OMEC) has been awarded, for the third time in six years, the coveted Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade. The company is one of the most-recognized guitar amplifier manufacturers in the world.
This great honor is made in recognition of OMEC’s outstanding achievement: its export sales have grown by 90% since their last award in 2009. They now sell to over 80 countries worldwide.
In the six years since receiving its first award, OMEC has launched many new and innovative products, expanded into the computer market and celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Managing Director, Damon Waller, commented “We are especially proud to be presented with this Award in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year, and we aim to continue doing what we do best – designing, building and creating new innovative products and building the brand.”
Cliff Cooper, founder and CEO, also commented, saying “It was always our dream for Orange Amplification to become a truly global company and, with factories in three Continents and a worldwide distribution network, to now receive the accolade of the Queen’s Award for the third time is so very special. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our staff around the world who with their dedication and enthusiasm have made this possible.”
More details from Turbosound (www.turbosound.com):
A design innovation that delivers better sound quality to a wider concert audience has won West Sussex based manufacturer Turbosound Ltd a 2012 Queen’s Award for Innovation. This is the third Queen’s Award that the company has earned in its 30-year history of creating groundbreaking loudspeaker products, adding to its 1987 and 1997 Export Achievement Awards, which were granted in recognition of exceptional consecutive years of export growth.
Managing director Simon Blackwood said: “The design team has come up with two truly innovative concepts – the Polyhorn and Dendritic waveguides – deployed across three product ranges which contribute towards the ever-increasing quality of sound reproduction at live concerts and in permanent installations, and which are set to earn the company significant income both at home and in our 45-plus export markets.”
The company has recently launched a new flagship sound system based on the innovation for use on concert tours and at music festivals – resulting in early market acceptance with systems already in use in Germany, Thailand, China and the U.S. The system, named Flashline in recognition of an earlier product that earned Turbosound global renown for its audio support of Pink Floyd’s landmark Division Bell world tour, and its second Queen’s Award, combines the Polyhorn and Dendritic waveguides in a multi-drive-unit loudspeaker system that delivers a hi-fi listening experience to all audience members at indoor and outdoor events. The Flashline loudspeakers are teamed with class-leading amplification and digital processing in a fully engineered, compatible professional tour sound package.
“Set against a challenging economic background and stiff competition from all quarters, this award really underlines the importance of UK design innovation in helping us to be a leader in the field of professional audio, and give us a genuinely competitive edge,” said Blackwood.
B&W Group Ltd. (www.bwspeakers.com) was honored for a skirted diamond dome diaphragm for loudspeakers. Element Six Ltd. (www.e6.com) was honored for its development of a synthesis process for a synthetic diamond tweeter dome used in high frequency sound reproduction.
