A Loughborough University student has come up with a design which could shape the future of sound - inflatable speakers.

The revolutionary concept has already attracted the backing of the US brewing giant Budweiser, which intends to use the product for its global marketing and advertising.

The inflatable speaker system, C-2-blue, is the idea of 23-year-old design and technology graduate Joe Stephens.

Joe said: "The speakers take any conceivable shape which means we can have a static object and turn it into something that's stylish and totally unique."

High Street winner

Through his own company Ellula Sounds Ltd which has been set up to market C-2-blue, the technology used is designed by the company NXT, the creators of flat panel speakers.

In contrast to traditional speakers which rely on the motion of a diaphragm, C-2-blue uses an NXT Exciter which can generate sound waves across the entire surface of a material.

Ellula claim the sound produced is high quality and multi-directional, another advantage on the diagphragm system.

And the uniqueness of C-2-blue could make it a winner in the High Street with Ellula's chief executive, Andrew Garner, predicting a multi-million pound turnover in their first trading period.

"C-2-blue can be used with any computer, Mac, PC and laptop, or any portable music system including personal CD, cassette players, Minidisc and MP3," he said.

The C-2-blue design has already been snapped up by the Gadget Shop and WH Smith.