Philharmonie de Paris
(c) Remy Franck
Vibrating backpacks for the deaf and hard of hearing will be offered starting in the 2023-2024 season at the Philharmonie de Paris, the concert hall’s managements announced in conjunction with SoundX, the company behind the technology.
Sound X is a company firm focused on Research and Innovation founded by French record producer, composer, engineer and entrepreneur Damien Quintard (*1991). He is also the Founder and CEO of The Mono Company. The first project of SoundX (2019) focuses on bringing music to the Deaf Community, with the first Artificial Intelligence made for and calibrated by institutes around the world and a patented vibration pack that translates sounds in real time.
The device will be free for spectators, who will still benefit from a 20% discount on the price of their tickets.
Eventually, Damien Quintard believes that these vibrating backpacks could emancipate themselves from the performance halls and become an everyday aid for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, allowing them, for example, « to distinguish between the siren of an ambulance and that of a horn or a dog’s bark ».
Damien Quintard was able to work directly with young deaf people at the Institut National des jeunes sourds in Paris and deaf professionals to understand their problems. Together, they were developing this system that allows deaf people to feel sound frequencies through vibration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B-8Jd34lpU&t=49s
