Highlights of 2024

From the professional studios that put together the globe's favourite songs, movies and TV, to vibrant home recording setups, cosy living rooms, and the impactful shared sound experiences of the AV world, your embrace of Genelec loudspeakers has given us a passion and livelihood to be proud of. So, as we look forward to working with you again in 2025, we hope you'll take a quick moment to enjoy our run-through of the key Genelec moments of the last year!

January:

At Genelec, we place great importance on transparency, so we appreciate the opportunity to have our business and technology assessed by third parties, which often come in the form of award-giving bodies. Our hope is that these assessments will help you, the consumer, make choices you can feel proud of. In January 2024, we were honoured to receive three very special accolades:

• Inavation Awards' Manufacturer of the Year 2024 – in recognition of our real-world commitment to responsible business and sustainability.

• SOS Awards' Best Studio Monitor 2024 – awarded to our powerful and innovative 8381A SAM™ Adaptive Point Source Main Monitor.

• TEC Awards' Best Studio Monitor 2024 – gave our 8381A a second major accolade.

We also delighted in the debut of our brand-new 'Kinos' video series, which aims to shine a light on fascinating untold tales from our cherished community of colleagues and avid sound lovers. Be sure to check out the first episode, which takes you right into the storied workshop of former Genelec Metalsmith Eino Paulus, where you'll hear his unique account of our history.

February:

Innovation is in Genelec's DNA. We have always set out to drive the experience of audio reproduction forward with improvements to sound quality and ease of use, while equally prioritising sustainability. In February, we rolled up to ISE – one of the AV world's biggest events – with a live preview of our pioneering new PoE-powered subwoofer, the Smart IP 3440A. Your response delighted us, hinting at a strong desire to create full-range systems with our energy-efficient and easy-to-install Smart IP family of networked loudspeakers.

Also at ISE, our Smart IP 4435A in-ceiling and 4436A pendant speakers were recognised with rAVe [PUBS]'s award for the Best New Meeting Room Speakers. A huge honour for us, thank you!

In the same month, we become a Pro Partner of the METalliance (Music Engineering & Technology Alliance) – an important industry organisation for knowledge sharing.

We also found great joy in launching our Spanish language website, which provides localised content for our many Spanish-speaking community members across the globe.

March:

As spring approaches, the weather outside our factory in Iisalmi, Finland, often remains very wintry – often well below zero! Yet, there's no shortage of warmth inside, as our wonderful team keeps spirits high. For several years now, #OurGenelec articles have introduced you to members of our valued crew, so you can discover the people behind the loudspeakers! 2024 started with our exceptional Production Manager Anne Tissari, whose story you can read here. Over the course of the year, we added the inspiring #OurGenelec stories of Sales & Export Specialist Ismo Katainen, Senior Designer Pekka Nissinen and Chief Operational Officer Piia-Riitta Bergman.

Further warming hearts, we continued our Harmony Tracks global music challenge in 2024, showcasing your personal sounds and helping our charity partner Music Fund provide worldwide musical relief. March delivered a stellar Harmony Tracks Ambassador piece from the brilliant tamiX, one of China’s most exceptional electronic music talents.

April:

April saw us dive deep into immersive audio in Tokyo, Japan, as the city hosted the AES 6th International Conference on Audio for Games. As always, it was a pleasure to meet you and exchange ideas – we're incredibly fortunate to be part of such a passionate and knowledgeable community!

There, many of you enjoyed hands-on experience of our 7.1.4 Smart Active Monitoring system calibrated by GLM software, including a first taste of the versatile 9320A Reference Controller, which makes it easy to effectively combine in-room and headphone monitoring workflows. Rounding out the event, Genelec Chief Technology Officer Aki Mäkivirta presented attendees with a brief workshop about the benefits of high-quality personal HRTFs, which are offered as part of our Aural ID binaural virtual monitoring technology.

May:

During May, we celebrated 20 years of our iconic and influential 8000 Series design, which has remained incredibly relevant over two decades – still representing the highest standard of truthful audio reproduction. To discover more about the roots of its creation and its unique development journey, you can click here.

Proudly for Genelec, we were finally able to reveal during May that we’re featured in Season Two of 'Secrets of the Superfactories', a popular and globally available TV series, which has visited some of the world's most influential, green and technologically advanced factories – including those of Rolls Royce, L’Oréal and Tesla.

June:

In June, our pioneering Smart IP 3440A PoE-powered subwoofer, which we previewed to great interest at ISE, got its full launch during Orlando, Florida's vibrant InfoComm Show. Proudly, Commercial Integrator deemed the innovation worthy of their BEST Award for Installed Loudspeakers and Subwoofers! Our warmest thanks!

Just before midsummer, we set off to the vibrant city of Madrid to share our renowned immersive expertise and solutions at AES Europe, a key gathering for sound engineers. The event delivered – as always – exceptional opportunities for networking, discovering key innovations and developing as a professional. To find out more, you can check out our quick event wrap-up written by Genelec Senior Technologist Thomas Lund here.

At Genelec, we feel it's incredibly important to share the knowledge we've gained since our founding. We believe that doing so helps to develop the audio community, ensuring that the rewarding craft of sound engineering is sustained far into the future. As part of this, we create exclusive free webinars each year, which help you understand and manage common acoustical issues and make full use of our solutions. In June, popular Genelec expert Marcel Schechter helped you understand how and why room acoustics affect the performance of audio monitoring systems, and he showed you the important role of Genelec SAM Technology and GLM calibration software in ensuring system performance is fully optimised.

July:

In July, the Audio Engineering Society (AES) – once again – brought the audio community together, this time to shine a light on the exciting and rapidly developing world of immersive audio in cars. With 3D sound offering so much potential for lifting in-car audio experiences to new heights, the sound engineering community is buzzing with confidence that demand for immersive music will keep increasing. If this gets you inspired, you can discover more about the event in Thomas Lund's quick wrap-up here.

August:

As a team of people connected by our passion for truthful audio, we pride ourselves on the ability to maintain a healthy and joyful working environment for all. In part, our success in doing this has been shown in the long careers fostered at Genelec – which often last decades. In August, we celebrated our longest-serving staff, and you can read more about what that meant to us in Genelec Enterprise Culture Developer Maria Martikainen's short article.

August also saw our Smart IP family of networked installation loudspeakers benefit from the addition of Symetrix’s new Intelligent Module to our ever-growing range of Smart IP API drivers, which provide easy and smooth integration with third party control systems. You can discover more about all our Smart IP drivers here.

September:

Representing a hugely important step for Genelec – and a transformative moment for the wider audio engineering world – we launched UNIO Personal Reference Monitoring (PRM) in September, raising the bar for seamless bridging of in-room and headphone monitoring.

Unveiled at IBC 2024 – and earning both TVB Europe's and Red Tech's Best of Show Awards – PRM combines our workflow-boosting 9320A SAM™ Reference Controller and factory-calibrated 8550A Professional Reference Headphones to deliver a truly pioneering active monitoring headphone solution. As part of UNIO, this gives you the ability to closely mirror our trusted SAM Monitoring experience on headphones – for the freedom to work effectively anywhere, from stereo to immersive.

October:

To make finding your ideal audio solution as easy and enjoyable as possible, it can be extremely helpful for you to have the chance to try out systems and ask questions. That's why we offer the opportunity to audition Genelec systems at our Experience Centres, which are situated across the globe. There, our friendly experts are happy to give you a hands-on experience with our systems and any guidance you need. In October, our list of Experience Centre locations – which includes London, Boston, Berlin, Helsinki, Stockholm, Lima, Beijing and Tokyo – expanded to include our new centre in Seoul.

In the same month, AES put together one more important gathering – this time in New York – where our attention-grabbing UNIO PRM system made its USA debut. Thank you to all who joined!

November:

As a company committed to treading lightly, we are especially proud when we gain recognition for our sustainability efforts – and always thankful to our team for making our achievements possible! In November, we were honoured to receive the 2024 AV Award for Sustainability, which you can learn more about by clicking here.

At Inter BEE 2024, Japan got its first taste of UNIO PRM. The event, focussed on the broadcast and video production industry, highlighted the system’s ability to boost audiovisual workflows. Thank you to all who joined our local team there!

We're always delighted to see Genelecs out in the wild, however, we must admit it feels extra special to see them making a massive impact through some of music's biggest icons! We hope this article and video with legendary DJ and Producer Hardwell are as enjoyable for you as they are for us!

November also saw the debut of our new Stockholm Artist Room, as we released two exclusive live performance videos recorded by the talented Bach Jazz.

Finally, in November, we were enormously grateful to learn that our easy-to-install and aesthetically beautiful Smart IP family of networked loudspeakers won the highly coveted Good Design Award in Japan. Thank you to all involved!

December:

Bringing 2024 to a close, we decided to give you all a little hand with improving your mixing results at home, as we released our special 'How to Build a Home Studio' guide video, which features friendly Genelec expert and long-time video host Darren Rose.

On a final note, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you all on board during our December Advent Calendar Challenge – we hope you'll continue to send us lots of comments next year too!

From everyone at Genelec, we wish you a wonderful 2025!