Audio expertise

Connected objects are playing an increasing role in our daily lives, and the market for them is growing. One of the key elements in the success of a connected object is the overall user experience.

If the form of the object has traditionallly been the primary focus for manufacturers, sound has become an essential component of the user experience.

As a result, the IoT sector has become increasingly concerned with the sonic experience that a connected object delivers to its user. The challenge of creating a “Sound Charter” (all the sounds emitted by the product) is threefold: to improve the ergonomics of the product; to help the user remember it in an already dense sound landscape; and to expand the brand territory.

IRCAM amplify brings together a multidisciplinary staff that is unmatched anywhere in the world.

In addition to experts in the most advanced audio technologies, we have designers and specialists in a wide range of disciplines (sound design, user experience, psychoacoustics, multisensoriality, etc.).

This multidisciplinary, complementary and collaborative team ensures that your connected products are carefully designed from start to finish – from the definition of technical and acoustic specifications, to the user’s sound path, to measurements, acoustic qualifications and psychoacoustic perception tests.

Working directly with IRCAM researchers, IRCAM amplify’s Audio Expertise team is at the forefront of the latest discoveries in this field.

Under the direction of its CTO, Frédéric Amadu, the multidisciplinary Audio Expertise team will accompany you throughout the entire sound chain:

• Digital audio and acoustic signal processing: Spatialization (immersive, 360, 3D,…)
• Improvements, corrections to sound rendering
• Porting, integration, optimisation of audio signal processing modules
• Verification of audio quality (subjective and objective)
• Measurements and acoustic qualifications
• Technical diagnosis of on-board sound components
• Choice of components, acoustics and electronics
• Sourcing of suppliers
• Technical recommendation up to the B.O.M.
• Sound engineering for all types of formats, from stereo to immersive

Under the direction of its CXO, Jean-Yves Le Porcher, the multidisciplinary Sound Experience staff will accompany you through the entire user journey:

• Drafting of personas
• Creation of user sound journeys (User Journey and Touch Points)
• Co-design of the sound identity for a brand, a service or a product using the Speak© method created by IRCAM
• Creation of sounds and music
• Creation of the haptic scoring
• Follow-up on the deployment of these sound creations across the various media and connected objects (interface sounds, organic sounds of objects, etc.)
• Recommendations regarding the various constituent elements (acoustic, mechanical or ergonomic components, spaces, etc.) in order to improve the sound experience

In permanent contact with IRCAM’s research teams and experience team, we test the customer’s experience and the sound creations to ensure an optimal and objectivized experience.

• Tests upstream of a study to evaluate the perception of objects, interfaces or target media, as well as opinion and acceptability surveys.
• Tests during the course of a project to assess the relevance of design proposals and to enable them to be readjusted; both qualitative and quantitative, with different types of population samples.
• For connected objects, tests on prototypes with target users, with a view to their refinement.
• Evaluation of sound creations or existing sounds to ensure that they are consistent with the target or brand and to best position the proposed sounds from a sensory perspective.