Turning yesterday's materials into tomorrow's sound.
What if materials that would otherwise become waste could be transformed into professional loudspeakers? That's the question behind Reclaim Audio®.
Reclaimed Sheet Material
Reclaim Audio is an innovation project exploring how suitable reclaimed and repurposed materials can be engineered into high-performance professional audio products. It's an extension of the same philosophy that runs through BishopSound — taken one step further back, to the materials we use to make the product in the first place. Repair. Restore. Reuse.
Wood doesn't stop being useful when a set comes down.
Wood and sheet materials are used extensively across construction, manufacturing, television, film, theatre and live-event production. When sets are dismantled, exhibitions close or manufacturing projects finish, materials can sometimes have useful life remaining but nevertheless enter waste or recycling streams.
We think that's an opportunity. Reclaim Audio is exploring whether suitable recovered materials can instead be assessed, prepared and engineered into professional loudspeaker cabinets.
Manufactured close to home, wherever practical.
Our ambition for Reclaim Audio is to manufacture as much of each product as technically and commercially practical here in Britain. We want to work with skilled craftspeople, manufacturers and responsible businesses, sourcing as locally to our Yorkshire base as reasonably possible.
The loudspeaker cabinets themselves will be designed and manufactured in Britain using suitable reclaimed and repurposed materials. Finished products will be fitted with carefully selected BishopSound transducers, specified to deliver the performance we expect from professional audio equipment.
We're not going to pretend every component can currently be manufactured locally. Our aim is to build a shorter and more transparent supply chain wherever practically possible, while never compromising the performance, reliability or safety of the finished loudspeaker.
Simple idea. Interesting engineering.
The idea sounds simple: take suitable material that might otherwise become waste and turn it into a professional loudspeaker cabinet. Making that work consistently is the interesting part.
Reclaimed materials aren't necessarily uniform. Different sheets can have different histories, characteristics, finishes and properties. That's why Reclaim Audio isn't simply about putting an old piece of wood through a saw and calling the result sustainable.
We want to explore how suitable reclaimed materials can be assessed and engineered by skilled craftspeople into loudspeaker cabinets capable of meeting the standards expected of professional audio equipment:
Keeping equipment working
“How can we keep this speaker in use for longer?”
At BishopSound, our sustainability philosophy starts with keeping equipment working. If a loudspeaker driver fails but the cabinet remains serviceable, we believe in repairing or re-driving that cabinet rather than automatically replacing the entire product.
Circular thinking, from the beginning
“Can we give an existing material another useful life before it even becomes a speaker?”
Reclaim Audio takes the same circular-economy thinking back to the beginning of the product's life. That's the challenge we're working on.
An innovation project, not yet a product.
Reclaim Audio isn't yet a product range available for general sale. And we think it's important to be upfront about that. We're developing the concept, exploring materials, working on designs and learning what works and what doesn't.
We're not interested in rushing a product to market simply because the sustainability story sounds good. Whatever carries the Reclaim Audio name still has to perform as professional audio equipment.
We don't think all the best ideas come from inside BishopSound.
That's why we're inviting other people into the project. The original Reclaim Audio project was conceived with collaboration in mind, encouraging end users, makers and partners to help shape the idea ahead of launch.
If you have materials, expertise, ideas or simply an interest in what we're trying to achieve, we'd love to hear from you. Reclaim Audio should be something we build with the industry, not simply something we eventually sell to it.
We're an audio company first.
The purpose of a loudspeaker is to reproduce sound. Reclaimed materials have to demonstrate that they can meet the structural and acoustic requirements of the application in which they're being used.
Where a material isn't appropriate, we won't use it simply to make an environmental claim. Where it is appropriate, we'll explore how good engineering can turn it into something valuable. Sustainability and performance shouldn't have to be competing objectives.
Make responsibly. Keep products working. Waste less.
British manufacturing
Increasing the amount of manufacturing we carry out here in Britain and supporting British manufacturing skills and suppliers.
Built to last
Designing products around longevity, serviceability and a repair-first approach.
Digital Product Passports
Improving access to product information supporting traceability, maintenance, repair and end-of-life decisions.
A second life for materials
Asking whether materials that have already had one life can be engineered to have another.
Designed in Yorkshire. Built in Britain. Made from materials that deserved a second life.
Reclaim Audio® — turning yesterday's materials into tomorrow's sound.