With the Strøm (Danish word for stream/current), Lyd by Dissing aims to develop a functional wireless speaker with an open design that everyone can copy. Yes, the Danish speaker brand is pursuing a new model that promotes developing their next product as an open (open source) design, freely available online.
During the Spring of 2022, the Strøm speaker will be developed as one of 12 carefully selected demonstrator projects exploring open source hardware development as part of the EU project OPENNEXT. Lyd by Dissing aims to combine community efforts to create a minimalistic wireless speaker that supports both Bluetooth and direct streaming over Wi-Fi (the company is apparently intent on supporting Spotify Connect specifically without mentioning other available streaming services - maybe because Spotify is from Sweden?).
Like any existing wireless speaker, the Strøm should make it easy to play both music and podcasts from a phone, tablet or laptop, in a multifunctional speaker design that can easily adapt to any living space. It should be able to be mounted on the wall or easily placed on a shelf, tugged away in a bookshelf or standing by a window sill (maybe with an Exeger solar-cell surface?).
As an open source project, all the software and hardware design files for the speaker will be publicly and freely available online, allowing it to be replicated, modified and adapted. "This allows the consumer to gain insight into how the speaker is developed and how it works. As such, any user can develop and contribute their own changes and extensions to the product, benefiting themselves as well as other current and future users," Lyd by Dissing states.
For now, the project's general guidelines define the Strøm as a "minimalistic visual expression" design that uses sustainable and recyclable materials as much as possible without compromising on the sound quality. Details already suggested in the project page, describe the use of a single SB Acustics SB65WBAC25-4, 2.5" full range driver (the project website lists it as SB Audience), an amplifier module to be designed, and the use of the ESP32 SoC by Espressif Systems. For the audio amplifier the Infineon MA12040P is listed as "a strong candidate." The software source code for the Strøm speaker will be freely available on Github.
Expanding further on the decision to develop an open source speaker, Tue Dissing says: “We have sadly seen one too many examples of proprietary and closed wifi speakers that can’t be repaired and aren't upgradeable. This often forces the consumer to buy new hardware before the expected lifetime of a product expires. Other brands outright discontinue fully operational product lines."
"The common denominator of these examples are that the consumers are locked into the proprietary ecosystem of the organization, or are forced to buy new equipment. All of this is something that we want to avoid with the Strøm speaker. By open sourcing the development of our speaker, we want to enable everybody to contribute to the design and the functionality.”
The European Union OPENNEXT project aims to promote and facilitate open source hardware product development through collaboration between developers and companies across Europe. “Open source product development is a highly promising, sustainable alternative to the current way in which we develop, produce and distribute products" states Frederik Lean Hansen, Project Manager at the Danish Design Center (DDC), a project partner in OPENNEXT.
The Strøm demonstrator project will run through May 2022 and Lyd by Dissing says that it expects to launch the speaker still during 2022.
Link to the Strøm demonstrator project: https://wikifactory.com/+opennext/lydbydissing
Link to the Strøm source code: https://github.com/LydByDissing/stroem
Link to the Strøm documentation: https://stroem.readthedocs.io/
www.lydbydissing.com
www.opennext.eu
