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Sound Blaster® Roar Portable Wireless Speaker Wins Prestigious Red Dot Award for Excellence in Product Design

Creative Sound Blaster Roar
portable wireless speaker

SINGAPORE – 3 April 2014 – Creative Technology Ltd today announced that its latest Sound Blaster® Roar portable wireless speaker has won the prestigious Red Dot Award given by the famous German-based international “Red Dot Award: Product Design 2014” competition – the largest and most renowned design competition in the world. The “Red Dot Award: Product Design 2014” is an annual international competition that recognizes outstanding product designs for their innovation, functionality, quality standards, ergonomics and ecological compatibility. The Red Dot Award is often seen as the ultimate accolade in the world of product design.

For 2014, the Red Dot Award competition received the highest-ever number of submissions from designers and companies from all over the world. At the same time, many new countries were added to the competition’s list of participants. Out of the record number of 4,815 entries from 53 participating countries, only 1,120 Red Dot Awards or about one in four product entries were selected.

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In order to ensure a professional appraisal of the quantity and diversity of products in this year’s competition, the international Red Dot jury was increased in size once again to a panel of 40 design professionals from 25 countries – the largest ever Red Dot jury to-date. Over a jury session spanning several days, the team of experts have tested, evaluated and deliberated on every entry – to reach a consensus and select the best products of 2014.

Professor Dr Peter Zec, the initiator and CEO of the Red Dot Award, explained why the competition is constantly rising in significance at an international level: “The Red Dot Award: Product Design gives design professionals from all over the world a chance to measure themselves against each other. Year after year, this results in a higher level of design and also motivates the participants to enter their best products in the competition.”

“We are very pleased that the Sound Blaster Roar wireless portable speaker has won the prestigious Red Dot Award this year amongst exceptionally stiff competition at this international platform. At Creative, we always strive to find that perfect balance between form and function, and design every product to be a sensory feast for the eyes and the ears. In designing the Sound Blaster Roar, our engineering team not only seeks to deliver the best in audio performance, at the same time it strives to achieve utmost functionality and aesthetic excellence.

The Sound Blaster Roar is a product of years of research in speaker design and technology, and represents the pinnacle of portable wireless audio. It marks the redefinition of the home stereo and wireless speaker market – by combining wireless connectivity, portability, high fidelity and audio power all into one sleek compact unit that can rest on the palm.” said Sim Wong Hoo, CEO of Creative Technology.

Creative Sound Blaster Roar Portable Wireless Speaker
Designed to rival existing home stereo systems, Creative Sound Blaster Roar, a new concept, 5-driver portable wireless speaker is a heavyweight contender in the wireless speaker market that delivers amazingly powerful, precision-tuned, high fidelity sound from a compact and portable booklet size.

Launched in March following a highly successful sneak preview at CES 2014 in early January in Las Vegas, the Sound Blaster Roar has been receiving very positive reviews and comments from members of the press and the general public.

Dubbed the ‘Audiophile Sound Booklet’ by audio aficionados, the sleek, metallic Sound Blaster Roar measures only 57 x 202 x 115 mm and weighs 1.1 kg, but packs a powerful punch in audio performance. The unconventional design concept and innovative methodology of a 5-driver approach utilising a boxer-bass-module and dual “far-field” high frequency drivers with Bi-Amplification and achieving a low-profile form factor enable the speaker to deliver exceptionally powerful sound with significantly enhanced audio spaciousness and stability.

Encased within a clean and compact speaker casing are many useful functions and features such as an integrated MicroSD WMA and MP3 player, speakerphone teleconferencing, voice recording, USB audio with Sound Blaster enhancement, dual battery mode and many more. The smooth surface and seamless design of the speaker grille made of high quality material give the speaker a contemporary and timeless aesthetic appeal.

The audio power of the Sound Blaster Roar is mind-shattering for its size and precision fidelity. It is believed to be the first high performance home stereo grade wireless speaker that can be taken on-the-go.

Check out the video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDBIXLK7EkA

Red Dot Awards Presentation and Special Exhibition
The glamorous Red Dot Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner, to be attended by more than 1,200 guests, will be held on Monday, 7 July 2014 at the prestigious Aalto-Theater in Essen, Berlin. Afterwards, the guests and prize winners will celebrate together in the Red Dot Design Museum at the legendary Designers’ Night.

Besides the Creative Sound Blaster Roar portable wireless speaker, two other premium Creative headsets, namely the Creative Aurvana® Gold wireless headset and Creative Aurvana® Live! ®2 headset were also winners of the Red Dot Awards.

Along with other award-winning products, all three award winning Creative products will be on special display from 8 July to 3 August 2014 at the “Design on Stage – Winners Red Dot Award: Product Design 2014” at the Red Dot Design Museum on the premises of the ‘Zeche Zollverein’ World Cultural Heritage Site in Essen, Germany. After that, the products will be presented in the Red Dot Design Museum’s permanent exhibition for at least one year. With approximately 1,500 products on more than 4,000 square metres, the Red Dot Design Museum houses the largest permanent exhibition of contemporary designs worldwide.

In addition, the award-winning Creative products will be incorporated into the Red Dot Design Yearbook 2014/2015, and presented in an online exhibition with the Red Dot App at www.red-dot.org/pd.

For more information about the Creative Sound Blaster Roar portable wireless speaker, please visit www.creative.com/roar/.

About Creative
Creative is a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products. Famous for its Sound Blaster® sound cards and for launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment with cutting-edge audio solutions, premium wireless speakers, wireless headphones and portable media devices. Today, Creative re-invents the Sound Blaster, which has a user base of over 400 million, with its ground-breaking Sound BlasterAxx that aims at the new mobile networked generation by bridging the worlds of the computer, smartphones, and tablets. Creative’s proprietary technologies, innovative hardware, applications and services leverage the Internet, enabling consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment – anytime, anywhere.

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This announcement relates to products launched in the Asia Pacific. Availability is subject to change without notice and may differ elsewhere in the world according to local factors and requirements. Creative, the Creative logo, Sound Blaster, Sound BlasterAxx, Aurvana and Live! are trademarks or registered trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.