Lewis Loane with Signal Optimiser offers inspiration to other student entrepreneurs
by Startacus Admin
Signal Optimiser, created by Lewis Loane, is an electronic signal device that sits between your instrument and your amp to allow maximum sound quality to transfer...
Any musician who uses an amplifier - and anyone else with common sense - knows that you want the maximum amount of sound quality to reach the amp from your instrument. Using a wireless connection between, say, your guitar and the amp will allow you to move around more without tripping and looking like a fool, but the sound quality transferred wirelessly might not be as good a solid wired connection. 
That is where Lewis Loane, Electrical and Electronic Engineering student at Queen’s University Belfast, comes in.
Lewis approached Enterprise Students’ Union in 2018 with his startup TORANN - Irish for ‘noise of battle’ - and its business idea: an electronic signal device called Signal Optimiser that sits between your instrument and the amp to allow 100% sound quality to transfer.
Since March 2019, the Signal Optimiser prototype has been in production, and he is already planning to produce audio effects devices such as distortion, reverb, and delay pedals. It is worth keeping an eye on whether you are musically inclined or not. It has other applications outside of audio signals, such as improving the efficiency of wireless power transfer, making wireless charging stations for your mobile phone work better. The world is quickly becoming more and more wireless, so a device that can ensure no loss of signal during transfer will be a huge boon.
Lewis won £6,000 in the Students’ Union’s ‘Dragons’ Den’ competition last year, after initially grabbing £250 and the title of ‘Best Business Idea for a Global Marketplace’ in their ‘What’s the Big Idea’ programme. NB. The final of this year's What’s the Big Idea is on Wednesday 4th December 2019.
Thanks to this, he secured a place in this QUBIS ‘Lean Launch Market Validation Programme’ and a fully-funded trip to Nashville for market research. From there, he received a further £10,000 from Techstart and eventually moving from winning the Electronics Category of INVENT 2019 to being named the overall winner of the competition, securing a prize pot of £13.5k. Phew!
From one award to another.
Now he just has to finish his engineering course...
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Published on: 24th November 2019
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