Back in 2018, tucked away in a small office in Denmark, a plucky gaming headset manufacturer was gearing up to take over the market. Designing and manufacturing competition-grade Esports headsets, AceZone was setting itself up to be a leader in its field. We’ve had the pleasure of helping with that, at least in a small way, and we wanted to shine a light on our work with this fantastic scale-up.
“When you’re scaling or dreaming of scaling, that’s what WATS helps you do. It’s that simple.”
Morten Hessilt Kjær, Audio Engineer, AceZone
Starting Small, Dreaming Big
When AceZone first started out, Morten Hessilt Kjær, their expert audio engineer leading AceZone’s audio testing (among other roles) faced a key challenge: managing complex audio test data for their high-end headsets. When you’re manufacturing a product that is going to be used in competition – Esports competitions with millions of dollars on the line by the way – these headsets really have to deliver.
Players can struggle to hear important in-game sound cues, and even their own teammates, due to arena noise when playing on stage. Headsets with insufficient isolation allow arena noise into the headset and can lead to players not receiving critical comms from teammates or in-game audio as they can hear the live commentary in the arena whilst playing on stage. Also, players are rightly frustrated when their headset microphones pick up crowd noise and commentators’ voices, and muddle this with team comms.
WATS From The Word Go
For AceZone, the decision to integrate WATS was a no-brainer. Morten had experience at a previous company of the pitfalls of DIY data management – essentially a labor-intensive, never-ending task, that adds real strain to lean teams. Because of that, WATS was put in place from day one – it was non-negotiable.
Our comprehensive data management system turned overwhelming data streams into navigable and actionable insights. This was crucial for AceZone, dealing with complex headset testing that produced a tonne of data, including over 40 individual graphs per unit. The clarity and control we’re able to provide have been indispensable for the team, ensuring that they didn’t drown in data, but instead used it to steer their production towards even greater heights.
Startup-Friendly Approach
We definitely work with some big names, ABB, Siemens, and Sennheiser, to drop a few. But our business is about helping any company that wants to get a better handle on testing – no matter their size. Because of that, we have a startup program that offers a big discount for small companies that are just starting out. Pricing shouldn’t be prohibitive when it comes to high-quality manufacturing.
In the case of AceZone, this program played a pivotal role in their early growth, allowing them to allocate a small portion of resources to get WATS onboard, while still benefiting from the system in full while they grew.
That growth, particularly in terms of production, extends beyond Denmark. While the competition-grade headsets are custom-made in Copenhagen, AceZone’s consumer range is manufactured in China. They’re still subject to a heap of very stringent quality control measures, but Morten has visions of implementing WATS there too, so that all test data management can be centralized and controlled through a single platform.
AceZone’s journey with WATS is more than a story of a startup leveraging technology, it’s a narrative of vision, innovation, and strategic partnership. WATS has not just been a tool for AceZone but a catalyst for growth and that’s something we’re super proud of.
Got a manufacturing data challenge you need help tackling? Just starting out and need accessible tools that support your growth? WATS is here to help.
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