Lightspeed’s Topcat Cascadia Named Winner in Tech & Learning’s Best of 2025 Awards
Ceiling-mounted networked audio solution recognized for its dual-impact design, enhancing classroom instruction and campus-wide safety communication
- Lightspeed’s Topcat Cascadia has been named a winner in the Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence: Best of 2025 for its outstanding contribution to the Primary Education category.
- The all-in-one, ceiling-mounted system was recognized for its unique ability to deliver crystal-clear instructional audio while integrating with school-wide safety systems.
- This recognition highlights Lightspeed’s ongoing mission to provide teachers and students with the reliable communication tools necessary for safe, inclusive and effective learning environments.
TUALATIN, Ore. – [Feb. 20, 2026] – Lightspeed, the leading provider of instructional audio solutions that enable equal access to learning, is proud to announce that the company’s Topcat Cascadia audio system has been named a winner in the Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence: Best of 2025 within the Primary Education category.
The Best of 2025 Awards celebrate educational technology from the last 12 months that has excelled in supporting teachers, students and education professionals. Judged by a panel of industry experts, the awards showcase products that go above and beyond to contribute to the education sector.
According to Tech & Learning, “The awards brought a huge number of high-quality entries. Our panel of industry experts judged the winning products to be those that were most impactful in helping schools improve teaching and learning during 2025. Every winner should be really proud of their accomplishments—a well-deserved congratulations from the entire awards team.”
The Topcat Cascadia is an all-in-one, ceiling-mounted audio system designed to provide clear, even distribution of sound throughout the classroom. By integrating seamlessly with school networks and safety systems, it ensures that every student can hear clearly while providing teachers with a critical lifeline for daily communication and emergency situations.
“We are honored that Topcat Cascadia has been recognized by Tech & Learning as a premier solution for primary education,” said Shaun Fagan, SVP of Product for Lightspeed. “Our goal was to design a system that not only enhances the learning environment through crystal-clear audio but also prioritizes teacher and student safety. In today’s schools, the right communication solution does double duty — supporting instruction and keeping students safe. We’re proud to help deliver that.”
To learn more about Lightspeed, visit https://www.lightspeed-tek.com.
About Lightspeed
Lightspeed, a 100 percent employee-owned company, is on a mission to help every student hear every word. For more than 30 years, we have delivered powerful instructional audio solutions to K–12 institutions around the globe.
Our instructional audio systems deliver low-volume and highly intelligible sound while supporting teachers with integrated safety features. Our lightweight microphones include built-in integrations with leading safety and communication systems to enable clear sound, emergency alerts, two-way calling capabilities and support for real-time language translation. From crystal-clear instruction and multilingual accessibility to campus-wide communication, we help create learning spaces where every student and teacher can listen, understand, learn, and stay safe.
Passionate about our culture of service, Lightspeed remains dedicated to improving the lives of educators and students through our products, research and partnerships. To learn more, visit https://www.lightspeed-tek.com.
Media Contact
Jon Kannenberg