Doug Wood Celebrates 30 Years at Ideaworks
The Early Days of Sound Ideas
When Doug Wood joined a small company called Sound Ideas in early 1994, the custom installation industry barely existed. There were no CAD workstations, no smart homes, and certainly no iPads on site - just a handful of people with a shared passion for audio and lighting, and the possibilities of technology.
Doug arrived almost by chance. A friend had found a different university placement, and Doug, then studying Industrial Design, stepped in. He met Kevin Andrews for an interview in a modest industrial unit in Wye. The two bonded immediately over a shared love of hi-fi. Doug was hired on the spot.
“The first thing I was asked to do was find a way of mounting a Bose subwoofer to the underside of a renowned English director’s antique sitting room table,” Doug laughs. “I knew right then this was going to be right up my street.”
From Sketches to Systems
At the time, Sound Ideas was a five-person team working entirely by hand - Rotring pens, tracing paper, and magic markers. A single error meant scratching out ink with a scalpel. Systems were simple by today’s standards, but revolutionary for their time: Phase dim single room lighting control, multi-disc CD players and radio tuners as distributed audio, and satellite stations encoded as TV channels and fed across the home.
Doug thrived in that world of sketching, model-making, and problem-solving. After completing his degree at Brunel, he joined the company full-time in 1995. Soon, the hand-drawn era gave way to the company’s first CAD machines and pen plotters - mesmerising but painstakingly slow. Even then, Doug’s passion was clear: combining design thinking with technical ingenuity.
Expanding Horizons
He designed and fabricated everything from bespoke light fittings and flush-mounted speaker enclosures to innovative mechanical systems, including motorised furniture, waterproof televisions, and early lighting control enclosures that would later become industry standards.
“I loved designing things and working with local manufacturers,” he says. “You’d draw it, make it, assemble it, and install it - that hands-on process taught me everything.”
As the industry evolved, Doug helped Sound Ideas expand into product distribution and was instrumental in designing early trade show displays. One highlight was transforming a hotel meeting room into a complete demonstration cinema - a bold move that made a lasting impression on the emerging UK custom installation scene.
From there, Doug’s career continued to evolve. By the early 2000s, he was managing his own projects and designing bespoke hardware. His first overseas assignment, a cinema at a private Caribbean island residence, was, in his words, “two of the best weeks of my career.” It also showcased the attention to detail and careful planning that would define his later work.
Then came a major turning point: his first superyacht commission in 2003. For Doug, it was an entirely new world. “I was in awe of the scale - it felt like a giant Airfix kit,” he recalls. “And I learned a lot very quickly.” Over the next few years, he became a key part of Ideaworks’ marine expertise, contributing to projects that set new benchmarks in onboard technology and design.
Leadership and Legacy
As Ideaworks grew, so did Doug’s leadership role. In 2008, he and Chris Jones were appointed Joint General Managers, formalising what had already been a natural partnership in running the business day-to-day. By 2012, Doug became Design Director, bringing his combination of creative precision and operational understanding to the board. In 2024, he assumed the role of Commercial Director, adding to his existing responsibilities.
Doug has witnessed the company and the industry transform from a team of five sketching in ink to a global leader delivering complex, multidisciplinary projects across continents. Through every phase, he has remained a constant: calm, inventive, pragmatic, and quietly influential.
“Relationships and goodwill are just as valuable as safeguarding costs,” Doug says. “That balance is what keeps great projects and great partnerships alive.”
Reflecting on Three Decades
Reflecting on three decades of design, leadership, and growth, Doug remains as energised as ever.
“I sometimes catch myself looking back at how great those early years were - the smell of the dyeline machine, the excitement of a new technology - but what really excites me now is what’s still to come. We have such talented people, and we’re pushing boundaries every day. It’s hard to imagine where else I could have had a better 30 years.”
Congratulations, Doug! And thank you for three decades of vision, dedication, and creativity that have helped shape Ideaworks into what it is today.
If you would like to learn more about careers at Ideaworks, check out our recruitment site here.