AES News

— AES initiative hosts online session with two Silicon Valley product development firms to discuss their role and contributions in bringing new audio products to market —

The AES Audio Product Education Institute (APEI) will host the webinar “Working with Product Development and Design Houses to Bring Audio Products to Market,” APEI’s seventh online event addressing Supply Chain & Sourcing, on Wednesday, April 21 (12:00pm EDT). In this new webinar, moderated by supply chain and sourcing experts David Lindberg (DB Enterprises) and Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific), the focus will be on the decision to hire an experienced product development and design team to ensure that a concept turns into a robust, market-ready project. Addressing this topic and sharing their experience working with some of the most cutting-edge technology companies will be Tom Keegan (Program Manager, Tact Product Development), Chris Fruhauf (Partner, Alloy Product Development) and Kaethe Henning (Director of Business Development, Alloy Product Development).

The session will discuss the role of product development and design houses as a resource to the audio industry and manufacturers, and how these leading companies’ expertise helps support both SMEs or large corporations in “filling in the gaps” that are missing internally in their product development resources. For many companies, the essential component for market success is working with an experienced company to optimize product design, share engineering and manufacturing expertise, manage quality, reduce cost and address time-to-market challenges. The product development consultants in this session will address the specificities of their business and how to bring products to market in 2021, as well as share their experiences in launching new products at scale.

The two companies presenting in this webinar – Tact Product Development and Alloy Product Development – are located in the heart of Silicon Valley, and both work with some of the largest consumer electronics and technology corporations while also helping to support exciting and innovative startups. Both firms have worked on some of the most cutting-edge, high-volume audio products recently launched in the market and fully understand the requirements of today's product definition and architecture development. Both companies also provide worldwide supply chain management and manufacturing operations consulting.

Tom Keegan is program manager at Tact (www.tactpd.com), a product development, engineering and manufacturing firm based in Palo Alto, CA. An experienced industrial designer with extensive experience gained in product development for the consumer electronics industry, Tom joined Tact in 2017. For the past two decades, his company has worked with the finest industrial design firms, creative start-ups and leading corporations to develop a broad range of innovative products from consumer electronics to highly stylized commercial products. The products Tact worked on have won over a hundred design and innovation awards for their clients and have been the flagships for many successful companies.

Chris Fruhauf is a partner of Alloy Product Development (www.alloypd.com), an engineering consultancy company he co-founded in 2008 with long-time collaborator Arturo Meuniot. Alloy has brought the vision of numerous clients to life by applying creativity, experience, and sound engineering principles to solve difficult problems. Focusing on product engineering, Alloy offers mechanical concepts, electrical engineering, firmware development, detailed design for manufacturing, industrial design integration, mathematical analysis and computer simulations, prototyping, testing and vendor liaison.

Kaethe Henning is director of business development at Alloy. A consummate program management professional, with experience working with startups, small businesses, and new product initiatives within larger organizations, she joined Alloy in 2021 and brings extensive knowledge of new product introductions and high-volume manufacturing to support the development efforts of clients in the consumer electronic and related industries. During her tenure as Program Director for hardware startup accelerator Highway1, she supported over 85 venture-funded early- and mid-stage startup companies developing hardware products in the electrical and electronic manufacturing industry.

The AES Audio Product Education Institute’s Supply Chain and Sourcing Webinar #7 is part of an ongoing and multi-faceted event series that underscores the AES’s commitment to providing its membership and the industry at large with timely real-world information. Guest presentations will be followed by Q&A discussion time with attendees.

Webinar registration: audioproducteducationinstitute.org/working-with-product-development-houses-to-bring-audio-...