When you win an award before your product is even publicly available, then the signs are that you are on to a winner.

Bath start-up Bardowl has pulled off such a feat, having won the Best Technology Innovation category in the FutureBook Digital Innovation Awards.

The firm, which is poised to launch a new type of audiobook for smart phones, was in good company at the awards ceremony, with other winners including publishing titans Faber and Dorling Kindersley.

Bardowl is poised to launch its audio streaming technology in March. When it does, it could do to audio what YouTube did for video.

Rather than having to download books before being able to listen to them on a mobile device, Bardowl will allow audiobook fans to stream them directly to their phones.

And rather than listeners having to pay for each title, Bardowl will enable users to switch between titles.

Major publishing houses have tested out a Bardowl prototype and liked what they saw.

"We win or lose this business on our relationship with the publishers," said Chris Book, Bardowl chief executive and former product development manager at mobile phone giant Orange.

"We have to take them on the journey with us."

The journey has got off to a smooth start with the FutureBook award, and former Culverhay pupil Chris is optimistic that the audiobook market is ripe for reinvention.

"I've always listened to audiobooks. We were encouraged to listen to them at Orange and if you requested one through the company's intranet, the next day it would arrive on your desk," he said.

Describing where the idea for the business came from, he continued: "I listened to stuff on BBC iPlayer and was streaming it on WiFi and I had a eureka moment: why not stream it on to mobile?

"I was in the position of knowing a lot about mobile but nothing about publishing."

That was three years ago and since then momentum has steadily gathered behind the project.

In the early days Chris was guided by silicon start-ups expert David Sykes, a business mentor at the Bath Innovation Centre.

Chris's partner in the business then became Neil Chapman, his former boss at Orange.

There is now a team of eight working on Bardowl, although none is drawing a salary yet.

Additional investment for the project came in 2011 when a publishing executive got on board, allowing the pace of development to go up a gear.

Bardowl will initially offer only business titles in the UK, before expanding into the United States. The plan is then to make all genres available via its app.

"Audiobook usage is growing because of the rise of digital and smart phones," explained Chris.

"The long-term plan is to support all genres. People might want to listen to business motivation in the morning, fiction on the way home, and then maybe to The Gruffalo with their children when they get home."

He added: "Working on Bardowl is exciting, and I can't wait to see what people think of it."