Hallmark joy for NXT

UK flat-panel loudspeaker specialist NXT has announced a deal that will see Hallmark Cards produce audio greeting cards equipped with its technology for the US market.

Hallmark, the world’s largest greeting cards manufacturer, already has a line of Cards with Sound that feature music by original artists and clips from TV shows and movies.

According to Cambridgeshire-based NXT, the quality of audio from these cards will be improved by its SurfaceSound technology, which will appear in an initial range comprising six 28cm greeting cards to be sold at Hallmark Gold Crown stores.

NXT claimed that the new range, called Big Cards, Big Sound, will have ‘outstanding’ audio thanks to the use of NXT transducers, or ‘exciters’, that generate high-quality sound on a variety of surfaces.

Peter Thoms, NXT chief executive, said: ‘This exciting new category for NXT has been the subject of a development programme for more than one year and we are delighted to see the first range of products reaching the marketplace.’

The Hallmark deal is NXT’s second recent breakthrough in the US. Last month the company entered an agreement with packaging company MeadWestvaco to launch the first line of NXT-based school equipment to selected stores in the US under the Five Star brand.

The student-oriented product line includes a desk case, zip binder and backpack that feature NXT’s flat panel loudspeakers, which can be connected to a wide range of music sources, such as MP3 players, mobile phones and laptops.

Other products in NXT’s portfolio include NXT-based speakers for the iPod by manufacturers Logitech, Kensington and Exspect, and NXT’s SoundVU system for mobile phone provider Vodafone.