A broadband router that matches contemporary office environments.
Minimal
Using only the minimum number of interior-design elements—a grid and slats—heightens and draws forth the efficiency and sense of precision of the broadband router.
Professional
A figure that projects a robust appearance. This is a representation of the reliability of Yamaha routers, in which the core portion and the data contained within are solidly protected.
Well-Made
The sandwich structure leaves an observer impressed by how thin the main body is. The gradient of the slats takes into consideration efficiency of heat removal, as well as design. In these and other respects, every detail has been finely calculated to produce a device body with a smart finish.
Honest
An appearance as though the texture of a wall had been cleanly sliced off and affixed. This provides sound indications of an exterior appearance that matches an office space and of the functionality required of a router.
Kazuya Washio
Designer
Yamaha Design Laboratory
A precisely calculated yet simple design that adds just what is needed to minimalist spaces.
Two routers developed for use in small and medium-sized offices and commercial premises: the entry-class NVR510 and the NVR700W, which features built-in wireless WAN functionality. As IT environments approach perfection in terms of function, what is required of office spaces now is the provision of a clean, minimalist environment; the trend is toward eliminating the visible presence of physical items whenever possible. The challenge for those engaged in design lies in finding ways of making objects blend into and match the spaces in which they are placed.
Walls, ceilings, and floors presented a visible hint for answering the question of how to meet this challenge: They all appear as logical, standardized systems of grids configured horizontally and vertically. We thought that we might be able to unify the router's presence with the space around it, until they virtually merged, if we gave the exterior a look as though a piece of one of those grids had simply been cleanly cut out and applied. Typically, routers are placed in the corners of spaces because of where wires run. This makes sense, as there are always walls behind routers. The shapes nestled into the surface panel—which covers the grid-patterned surface panel of the core main unit that houses the base—present a robust exterior that acts as a bulwark for the core portion of the router and the data processed therein. They also ensure that the router appears to be a part of the texture of the wall.
This product required a heat vent, which we had to handle as part of the design process. Simply adding a few openings in the form of holes would have created visual noise and made it harder to achieve a design that is unified with the wall. We checked which points on the internal base emitted the most heat and added the smallest, most efficient heat vents inside quadrants shaped like slatted shutters, integrating them as part of the design and resolving the dilemma. When viewed from a slight angle, the slats play a role akin to the overhanging eaves of a roof, concealing the openings. Slats are themselves one of the components used to compose spaces, and thus the slats on the router visually match the surrounding space harmoniously. The relative proportions and placement of the openings is precisely calculated and controlled, weaving a rhythmical, beautiful pattern, as well as achieving efficiency of heat removal and excellence of design in higher-order dimensions.
The design is both smart and faithful to the device's function. We would be thrilled to have users employ this product to create clean, minimalist spaces.
