Orbitsound unveils new iPod dock

Orbitsound , the British audio company created by sound engineer and one-time session musician Ted Fletcher, will today unveil a new range of gadgets using its innovative spatial stereo technology that are likely to have audiophiles drooling. Alongside the T12 – a new version of its "soundbar", which sold out within a few months of being made available in John Lewis last year, amid widespread critical acclaim – Orbitsound is releasing a new gadget: a Wi-Fi-enabled digital radio and iPod dock, called the T4 Radiopod. Both gadgets make use of the company's airSOUND system, Fletcher's patented technology that produces clarity and depth of sound wherever the gadget is positioned. With a traditional stereo system there is a "sweet spot" a certain distance from the speakers in which the listener will experience perfect sound. Orbitsound maintains that its products produce fantastic stereo "spatial" sound with depth and clarity wherever the system is positioned, creating a so-called "infinite sweet spot". The technology was developed by Fletcher in 2004, but the first devices were not unveiled until the Consumer Electronics Show in 2008. Fletcher's experience of the audio industry stretches back to the early 1960s, when he worked with music producer Joe Meek – whose most famous hit was Telstar by The Tornados – first as a session artist and then as a sound technician. He went on to set up his own sound mixer manufacturing company in 1969, called Alice, and his kit was soon in demand by the likes of Jethro Tull, the Eagles and the Who. He went on to sell Alice and set up an audio compression business, whose most popular line of stereo compression equipment Fletcher named after Meek. It was snapped up by PMI Audio Group seven years ago. The original backing for Orbitsound came from John Cameron and Harvinder Hungin, two City financiers who were behind the 2004 multi-billion pound buyout of property group Chelsfield. They are both executive directors of Orbitsound. The company, meanwhile, recently finalised a fresh investment round and an overdraft with a major international bank, in order to fund its expansion.