our PRODUCTS
Sustainable Product Design
As a group, Sustainable Product Design is integral to Audiotonix’s research and development processes. Since 2018, Audiotonix has implemented a comprehensive Eco-Design Strategy across R&D, ensuring a strong focus on minimising the environmental impact of our products throughout their lifecycle. Our Eco-Design Strategy prioritises five key aspects of product design:
Product Weight Reduction
Energy Efficient Design
Sustainable Material Selection
Design for Recyclability
Lifecycle Assessment (LCA)
Product Material Choices
The monthly Eco Design forums research and evaluate new materials with suitable attributes that have a lower carbon embodiment. A focus in 2023 was to reduce the business’s reliance on virgin plastics and virgin aluminium. Post Consumer Recycled (PCR) plastics will feature in 4 new products currently in development, which will ship in 2024. In addition, Post Consumer Recycled Aluminium will be used in the chassis of 6 new products due to be launched in 2024. We are also designing a product made from recycled paper that will be used to replace the plastics in new Group products.
Reduced Power Consumption
Reducing power reduces the heat within a product, which also allows the designs to use passive cooling, rather than fans, or a smaller fan. Reducing the heat produced by our equipment also reduces the need for air conditioning in equipment rooms, further saving on energy. Many of our larger products, such as Q852, Q338 and Q225 (DiGiCo), Avantis Solo (Allen & Heath) and Argo (Calrec) use temperature-controlled fans that are only used when required and therefore balance the needs of cooling and power consumption. We also use passive heatsink cooling wherever possible.
Product Longevity
As a group, we design our products for a 10+ year lifespan and provide software-upgradeable hardware such that customers can keep their products competitive and current for longer. Updates for Calrec’s Impulse and Apollo+ products, Solid State Logics Live and Broadcast products and Sound Devices A20-Nexus, Mix Pre and 8 series products during the year are good examples of this
Group Eco Design Forum
The Eco Design Forum was set up in 2018 to accelerate further our progress on eco design and also provide an opportunity for engineers from all our businesses, who are passionate about eco design, to contribute to the Group’s future eco developments. Since the inception of the forum, we have been able to accelerate the use of recyclable plastic and aluminium material in our products, replace plastic packing tape with paper equivalents and start using higher recycled content in the plastic bags we use through the research work that they have done. These last two elements alone saved 2.7 tonnes of virgin PE plastic in Allen & Heath products in 2023.
The group team are not resting on their laurels, and are currently working on low CO2e PCB technology, bio plastics, non-plastic “plastic bags”, increased recycled material in our packaging and the use of pulp cardboard to replace foam in the packaging of our larger products.
Andy Bell
Group Technical Director
Read our latest Sustainability Report
See how we put our values into action since 2020, advancing our staff and community programs, unleashing the power of creativity for social engagement and entertainment, innovating ethically and responsibly, and enabling sustainability at scale as we continue to grows.