Genelec has once again received high-profile recognition in its home country,
Finland, with the announcement that it has won a prestigious Winner-award in the
Fennia Prize design competition. The accolade – one of Europe’s most respected
design honours – has been bestowed upon a recent and highly popular addition to
Genelec’s acclaimed Smart Active Monitor (SAM™) range, the three-way compact
8351A.

A leading voice in the Finnish design community since 2003, the Fennia Prize is
organised biennially to support the creation of high-standard products and services,
and to promote the competitiveness and internationalisation of industries. Genelec
is a previous recipient of a Fennia Prize trophy, having won the 2009 Grand Prix
prize for the design of the 5040A active subwoofer. Now, the jury of the 2017
Fennia Prize has acknowledged the widely hailed and unique design of the 8351A,
having picked it from the competition’s Industrial category.

As with so many of the company’s landmark products, the 8351A was designed by
Harri Koskinen, working in conjunction with the Genelec R&D team. Incorporating a
number of leading Genelec technologies – including the Acoustically Concealed
Woofer (ACW™), Minimum Diffraction Coaxial (MDC™) driver and Directivity
Control Waveguide (DCW™) – the Smart monitor is designed to suit environments
such as recording studios, broadcast facilities, outside broadcast vehicles and post-
production facilities.

Featuring a loudspeaker cabinet of recycled aluminium, the 8351A boasts a
distinctive appearance that nevertheless still reflects the clear-cut design familiar
from previous Genelec products and Harri Koskinen’s work in general. Accordingly,
the product has also found favour with an increasing number of home audio
customers as well as professional users.

“The Fennia Prize plays an important role in defining the debate not just for
Finland’s design community, but globally as well, so we are absolutely delighted to
have received this recognition for the 8351A Smart monitor,’ commented Genelec
Managing Director, Siamak Naghian. “One of the key aims of the prize is to
encourage international competitiveness, and in this regard the 8351A has proven to
be one of Genelec’s greatest success stories, with customers in more than 70
countries worldwide responding to its extremely controlled directivity, its breadth of
coverage, its Smart calibration features and of course the fact that it is unique and
beautiful. Following a number of other high-profile awards for this product, the
Fennia Prize will undoubtedly help us to reach even more potential customers as we
continue to showcase the 8351A.’

For more details on the Fennia Prize, visit www.designforum.fi/prizes/fe
nniaprize, while further information on the Genelec 8351A can be found by
visiting www.genelec.com/8351.