New technology for a new listening experience
Three young German firms are revolutionising the listening experience - let us introduce you to them.
New technologies also play a key role in acoustics and sound creation - raising the listener’s experience to new levels. We present three firms from Germany that are blazing new trails.
Every space sounds different - but Holoplot can change that
The Berlin-based firm Holoplot - Never heard of it? How about The Sphere in Las Vegas? The largely unknown Berlin-based firm and the world-famous futurist multimedia concert venue The Spehre in Las Vegas are linked by incredible sound quality. Because this sound quality comes from Berlin. The Sphere can accommodate 18,000 concertgoers, who enjoy optimal sound quality wherever they are sitting or standing. Even the otherwise critical “Rolling Stone” magazine was full of praise. The sound quality is achieved thanks to 1,900 loudspeaker systems with 167,000 individual loudspeakers.
Since 2011, the Berlin firm has been working on how to control sound in much the same way as light. Evidence of how well their 3D audio technology works can be found not only in concert halls: Holoplot is also responsible for the sound quality at Africa’s largest mosque, Muhammad Ali Mosque in Cairo.
Every person hears differently – Mimi allows the original to be heard
Hearing is an extremely individual capacity, which also changes significantly with advancing age. So how differently does music sound to people? Even the most expensive high-end systems aim to play music in a technically optimised way rather than in a way that is tailored to the individual listener. This is where the Berlin company Mimi Hearing Technologies comes in: following a hearing test, software uses AI to adjust the sound to the listener’s individual hearing capacity. This applies to both loud and quiet tones - unlike an equaliser that increases or lowers individual frequencies. As the company itself explains: Mimi does not change the original sound but rather influences the sound experience. And it appears that a whole host of renowned licensees agree.
mp3 co-inventor wants to create virtual reality for the ears
Professor Dr.-Ing. Dr. rer. nat. h.c. mult. Karlheinz Brandenburg doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody. As co-inventor of the mp3 file format, the most important development in music playback since the gramophone record, the former director of the Fraunhofer Institute IDMT is a living legend. Yet he still has goals. “It’s an old dream of mine - the perfect acoustic illusion,” Brandenburg said during a Fraunhofer discussion. Since 2019, he has been working at Brandenburg Labs on PARty, which stands for “personalised auditory reality”. Essentially, this is virtual reality for hearing that features an acoustic filter. PARty aims to create the perfect illusion of an acoustic space, while at the same time suppressing ambient noise but allowing warning signals through. As Brandenburg explains, it will be a long time before the system is ready to market. That was the case with mp3 too, however.
