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Kvålsvoll
 Design AS

Partner for creating great things.

Understand how things work and being able to convert theoretical models into practical, working solutions.

This is what Kvålsvoll Design is about.

Tech.

Kvålsvoll Design is a tech design company, exploring my special expertise in audio technology and dynamic systems.

Focus is on design and development. Some of the loudspeaker designs have been offered for sale, primarily for the purpose of testing those products in the market, and to show what is possible to do.

Audio.

The development of audio solutions in Kvålsvoll Design has lead to several new technologies for sound reproduction, such as the Compact Horn subwoofers, controlled directivity speakers.

The new small speaker systems developed in 2020 set a new standard for sound - small size, acceptable cost, works in normal rooms, significantly better sound. This is the sound of the future, with considerable commercial potential.

B2B:

Kvålsvoll Design aims to serve other businesses, enabling them to deliver better products to their customers.

Norway. Most expensive in the world.

Kvålsvoll Design AS is a Norwegian registered limited company, founded and owned by Øyvind Kvålsvoll.

The company is located in Ålesund, on the north-west coast of Norway.

Øyvind
 Kvålsvoll

I like to create.

Can be a physical object I draw on CAD and then make in real wood with my own, real, hands. Or a computer algorithm, an abstraction, which inside my brain transforms into adventure.

I like to work on engineering challenges as well as shape and visual appearance. I also enjoy working on abstractions like systems and concepts. This forms the foundation of Kvålsvoll Design.

Product development?

Coming from a background as an engineer in software, electronics and control technology, my work has always been some sort of Product Development. Complete solutions, involving the complete process from user interaction design to finished. Or just a part of development involving several people, in various disciplines.

I have been involved in a large variety of products and systems, including electronic circuit design, embedded software design, advanced multivariable non-linear control algorithms, industrial design, design of software systems for large control systems.

Dynamic systems.

I worked several years on control systems for offshore handling equipment, developing methods for design and implementation of dynamic control algorithms.

Then Industrial Control Design was founded, later followed by ICD Projects, companies delivering control system tech where we developed refined software and methods for implementation of dynamic control systems. The methods involve extensive simulation and significantly reduces the risks involved in projects with new technology.

Audio:

In 2010 I used a similar approach of dynamic systems theory and simulation to develop new technology for subwoofer loudspeakers for home theater and home entertainment sound reproduction.

The Control Design Platform software.

One of my largest projects is the CDP distributed control system, the main product of Industrial Control Design. I left the company in 2007, by then the system was a great technical success with thousands of applications installed mainly on offshore vessels.

With a new approach.

In 2012 I started designing loudspeaker systems for home theater and home entertainment. Development is based on simulation, and a mindset oriented towards defining desired results to act as a goal for performance.

Designed around modern principles of controlled directivity sound radiation, the speakers are challenging both for visual appearance and electroacoustics engineering.

The results are very rewarding - quality of sound reproduction is significantly improved, while they still fit nicely into a domestic environment.

The new small speaker systems developed in 2020 are truly remarkable, and really needs to be experienced to understand.

Perhaps it is time to retire now. Or maybe not.

And now in my senior years, I realize age is good. Experience and wisdom actually makes a difference, especially when working in tech, because results can usually be measured and verified, and thus difficult to hide. And good results require wisdom.

Future looks to be a change in direction. Back towards software and systems and simulations.

Very interesting things happen right now with AI, it has evolved to be useful in quite interesting ways. And then there are opportunities that comes along with the exploding general interest for AI.

Professional.

I am a tech developer out skiing, I am not a retired skier trying to learn coding.

Just saying, in case you made it to the bottom of the page.

References

My CV, short version
My CV, more complete version
My Major thesis, on Modeling and simulation and control

Papers and presentations from Industrial Control Design company, showing what we made back then. Note that I am the creator if this content, but I do not own its copyright, which belongs to the owner of properties left from Industrial Control Design AS or ICD Projects AS.

CDP software system presentation
The Cybernetic Factory, presentation for SINTEF Trondheim, Norwegian language only
ICD newsletter
ICD Projects newsletter