As the years ticked by it has evolved into a leading international product award: for 2014 no less than 400 international experts discussed and evaluated 4815 submissions from 53 countries. The jury only bestows the award on the design that captures the imagination through the standard of workmanship and sheer innovation.
"If nothing else, this is reflected by the actual number of designs that win the Red Dot Award," states Professor Dr Peter Zec, initiator and CEO of Red Dot, "compared to other international design competitions, it's far fewer."
This year, it was the design of the D80 amplifier that won over the forty-strong jury of experts, to achieve winner status. Red Dot describes the D80 as a four channel Class D amplifier with digital signal processing providing loudspeaker specific configurations, user-definable equalisation and delay functions combined with comprehensive management and protection functionality.
The TFT colour display allows for quick access to all settings, while data input is managed via the rotary encoder on the front panel. For easier operation, the front panel with integrated display is tilted upwards. According to the jury, the high performance D80 amplifier won the award for its outstanding user-friendliness, "All functions can easily be set via the touchscreen and the rotary knob." An exhibition of award winners opened on 7 July 2014 as part of the traditional Red Dot Gala in the Red Dot Design Museum Essen. The award winning D80 will be on display to the general public for four weeks before it moves to the permanent exhibition at the museum.
(Jim Evans)
