Starting today, things are gearing up in Cannes. The five day festival and award show offers the creative industry access to fantastic new ideas, breakthrough research and up-and-coming technologies. For a number of years the festival in Cannes has gone much further than advertising and communication alone. Research, innovation, impact, health and entertainment are also important topics. Audio too is creeping up the agenda every year. That´s why you can find our favourite contenders in this blog.
Audio, thankfully, is once again garnering a lot of interest. Thanks to the rise of streaming services; the popularity of podcasts; the increasing number of voice assistants; the rediscovery of radio as a medium; and, the increasing attention that music for online video is getting these days. Because of all these new uses for audio there are now also diverse categories open for submissions in the Radio & Audio Lions: ‘Excellence in Radio & Audio’, ‘Innovation in Radio & Audio’ and ‘Radio & Audio in Culture & Context’, for example. We chose our personal favourites from among all the submissions that are in the running for a coveted Lion this week.
1. ‘SeeSound’ warns the deaf when an alarm sounds
In the U.S. alone there are 9 million households where at least 1 member of the family is deaf. What happens when this adult is the only one home and something alarming happens? A fire alarm goes off, a siren, or a child screaming in pain for instance. SeeSound has the solution. It is a smart home hearing system based on machine learning. The software is fed with 2 million YouTube videos, in which all sorts of variations of 75 house, garden and kitchen noises can be heard. Via WiFi and an app the deaf member of the family gets an alert with a description of the sound that the SeeSound device has picked up.
2. ‘Deaf 911’ translates text to speech
Equally clever and also aimed at deaf members of the community is the app Deaf 911. This app works with speech to text and text to speech technology. The words of the 911 operator appear as text on the smartphone of the deaf caller. These can be pre-set text suggestions or the spoken answers of the operator which are directly turned into text. In this way people who are deaf or hard of hearing communicate with 911 much quicker and more easily. An elegant and useful innovation, with a big role for audio technology.
3. ‘Immigrant Song’ wraps legal texts in music
A wonderful audio idea and for a good cause too. Because immigrants from South America speak limited English and often don´t know what their (civil) rights are, a smart solution has been found. The crucial information that they need, for example when stopped by the American border police, is worked into Immigrant Songs. This comes from Latin culture, where texts traditionally deal with wrestling with the challenges of life. These songs are broadcast via simple transistor radios within the enormous area along the American southern border. A very effective and compassionate way to get the message to the right place.
4. The world’s first genderless voice-assistent
First there was the gender neutral toilet and now there is Q, the gender neutral voice assistant. Until now brands had to choose between a male or a female voice to represent them via the various voice assistants. Audio technicians have discovered that the frequency of a gender neutral voice lies between 145 and 175 hertz. A voice that falls within these frequencies cannot be identified as male or female and so remains gender neutral. It offers the Amazons, Siris and Google Homes of this world a third option, in addition to male or female. We will undoubtedly be hearing more about this.
5. Cannes Lions: Learn, network, be creative
Since the first edition in 1954, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has been bringing the creative communication industry together annually in Cannes, to learn, network and celebrate creativity. Between the 17th and 21st June thousands of professionals from brands, agencies, media companies and consultancy groups will come together, with the goal of increasing the impact of their marketing efforts.
Want more to read? Find all of our ebooks here:
52 tips for writing persuasive voice over scripts
15 practical tips – The do’s and don’ts of in-house production
23 tips: here’s how to increase your submission’s chance of a film festival win
What to look for in a voice over who works remotely – A practical checklist for working with a voice actor online
E-Learning courses with impact – 20 practical tips for creating an effective e-learning course
