On our last full day in Vienna, we had a business visit at AKG Acoustics. We started our day off with a presentation from Walter Ruhrig, Artist & Key Customer Relations representative, as well as various employees at the company. During the presentation they ran us through all the steps that were used to create a pair of their headphones, including the blueprints and the hardware that went into the prototype. They talked about the importance of differentiating your product from your competitors, so you can find your niche in the market. It seems as though AKG has found their niche, especially with the new release of their AV100 Aviation Headset.
We then got to see the company's anechoic chamber. Their chamber was the first one we saw that had a solid floor and walls, but it still worked the same as all the other chambers we had seen. In their chamber they showed us a demonstration with a loud speaker and one of their microphones. A pitch played through the loudspeaker and the microphone moved at 10 degree intervals to make sure that it could pick up a sound the same way even when rotated.
We were then walked through the company's manufacturing facilities, which was a surreal experience. It’s amazing that a product as small as a microphone or headphones can take so many machines to make. The testing room where AKG tested the efficiency of the diaphragms was interesting, because they didn’t trash the ones that didn’t work properly, they went through many steps to fix the inefficiency.
After the tour, we had the rest of the day free. A shopping day was what the rest of the day had in store for most of us. We figured out the underground system and went to the city center and explored all the shopping they had. For dinner we ate the Danube Tower, a rotating restaurant towering above Vienna with amazing views of the whole city. I’m sad that our time in Vienna is coming to a close, but is has been an amazing, once in a lifetime experience.
We then got to see the company's anechoic chamber. Their chamber was the first one we saw that had a solid floor and walls, but it still worked the same as all the other chambers we had seen. In their chamber they showed us a demonstration with a loud speaker and one of their microphones. A pitch played through the loudspeaker and the microphone moved at 10 degree intervals to make sure that it could pick up a sound the same way even when rotated.
We were then walked through the company's manufacturing facilities, which was a surreal experience. It’s amazing that a product as small as a microphone or headphones can take so many machines to make. The testing room where AKG tested the efficiency of the diaphragms was interesting, because they didn’t trash the ones that didn’t work properly, they went through many steps to fix the inefficiency.
After the tour, we had the rest of the day free. A shopping day was what the rest of the day had in store for most of us. We figured out the underground system and went to the city center and explored all the shopping they had. For dinner we ate the Danube Tower, a rotating restaurant towering above Vienna with amazing views of the whole city. I’m sad that our time in Vienna is coming to a close, but is has been an amazing, once in a lifetime experience.
A view of Vienna from the Danube Tower (Donauturm) restaurant.