Kenwood 2006 Annual Report Download - page 9

The Home Electronics business is another of our longstanding operations
like the wireless radio equipment business. Since our commercialization of
a high-class FM tuner using advanced high-frequency technology and
honored as the world’s best, Kenwood has expanded the business under
the concept of “high fidelity” and expanded its
presence as an audio system manufacturer around
the world. At the same time, the Company has
produced many proprietary sound technologies that
significantly improve quality, and continued to offer
fresh, attractive sound entertainment for the market, at a time when
media technology shifted from analog to digital. This concept remains
meaningful even after the drastic restructuring due to market maturity and
quickly changing trends.
Taking the spread of new digital media as a great business opportunity,
Kenwood is now commercializing digital media products including
portable digital audio players to realize the highest sound quality in a given
product space. At the same time, the Company is proposing new
seamless “sound entertainment” by connecting these players to home
audio and car electronics products. The Company has newly established
its “Sound Meister Edition,” a product line for which its Sound Meister
was engaged in a detailed process from product design to selection of
components. This strategy was implemented in
order to enhance product lines consisting of high
value-added models, in line with the above
significant changes in the market.
In the field of portable audio, the Company
commercialized a flash memory audio product, followed by a portable
HDD audio product that adopted digital amplification for the first time in
the industry. Trying to reduce the sound degradation that is inevitable to
the compressed music data, Kenwood is actively developing high sound
quality technologies that are required in the new digital media era and
applies them to its products. Such technologies include “Supreme,” a
patented technology for complementing deleted part in the high
frequency range and original lossless compression method that enables us
to directly record in HDD data with sound quality similar to CDs.
In the field of pure audio, Kenwood has enhanced its high fidelity audio
product lines using traditional high fidelity
technology fused with the latest digital technology.
The Company has also commercialized a new
entertainment system able to reproduce the high
sound quality of hi-fi audio and front surround
sound to create a sensation of realism.
Kenwood will continuously strive to open up new grounds for “sound
entertainment” with higher fidelity and more entertainment, by leveraging
cutting-edge digital media and networking environment, while focusing
on its traditional high-fidelity reproduction.
Strategic Technologies Development
The Company conducts research and development for advanced technologies
on the cutting edge in anticipation of the full-scale arrival of the fully digitized
and networked society.
The Company is developing competitive new technologies and products
especially in the remarkably fast-growing technology fields of car electronics,
home electronics, and communications electronics. Kenwood is striving to
strengthen its development capabilities for next-generation technologies and
for products in the following areas: technology development to realize a
unique, seamless entertainment world for the arbitrary sharing of contents in
car audio, home audio, and portable audio; car multimedia development
responding to next-generation ITS service; technology development for
terrestrial digital broadcast in Japan and abroad and for overseas satellite
broadcast; technology development for sophisticated voice interaction, and
development of terminal technology that enables the receipt of AV content
over broadband connections.
Speaker System Business
Despite the widespread progress of digital media, speaker systems remain a
sensitive field as they rely on the physical phenomenon of air oscillation to
convey sound. The Company has accumulated extensive proprietary analog
technologies and relevant know-how through a painstaking process of trial
and error in its high fidelity design as well as development of
new materials for speaker system. The Company aims to
offer added value that is more attractive to the market
through the reproduction of high fidelity sound based on the
above technologies and know-how. Contributing to both
the Car Electronics business and
the Home Electronics business,
Kenwood will also establish a
speaker business to further
enhance the audio sector.
Sound Quality Research
Kenwood has enhanced its presence as an audio manufacturer with the
concept of “reproduction of original sound.” Although the emergence of
new media such as flash memory and HDD popularizes the compression of
music data, the Company is always aiming to “reproduce the original sound”
applicable to new media and software by taking advantage of its own sound
quality technology, the know-how that it has gradually accumulated over a
long time, and the latest digital technology. For this purpose, Kenwood has
established a Sound Quality Research Office to seek the latest sound quality
technology on a daily basis. The Company is making efforts to carry over its
sound quality technology and know-how gradually accumulated through trial
and error to these new markets in the future.
When commercializing audio products, the Company spares no effort in
seeking the finest sound quality throughout the design process, including
detailed tasks such as the selection of components under the strict control of
the Sound Meister, the superintendent responsible for sound quality. These
efforts are directed to enabling Kenwood to provide high quality sound
product lines that are chosen with strict attention to quality.
Home Electronics Business
For further reinforcement of the Core Businesses
Kenwood Corporation 09 Annual Report 2006