Leveraging Audio Devices for More than Just Assisted Listening

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Pro AV today. You know, one of the conversations that I love having all the time is is learning and understanding new ways that technology we've used for a long time is being able to be reused and repurposed and and elevated in other scenarios. One of those technologies is the traditional assisted listening device. Right? Typically, you would think for maybe someone that that was hard of hearing or, you know, maybe needed to be able to hear an interpreter or, you know, a a lecturer from far away. But as we grow as a community, that technology is being leveraged in so many different ways, not only creatively, but to drive accessibility and drive initiatives like DEI. And I didn't want to be the expert on this one because I I know enough to be dangerous, but I wanted to bring someone in that we could ask questions about this specifically and digging a little bit deeper. That's Kim Franklin over at listen tech. Kim, thanks so much for coming on the show. Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, Kim, so for those those folks who may not know you, you're you're over on the listen tech team. Just give us a high level kind of explanation of kind of some of the things that you guys help enable over on the listen tech world. So in listen technologies, started in assistive listening and that really was our bread and butter for a long time. We believe that everyone deserves the same great experience. So the very kind of root of listen did start with accessibility initiatives and we found over the years that as you have mentioned, assistive listening goes beyond hearing assistance, right? It goes beyond meeting the letter of the law or the ADA and and the more people get out and experience the world around them, the more noise, the more you realize that the need for hearing assistance is everywhere. Right? So we we develop technology that helps in environments where assistive listening is required, as well as environments where you just might be challenged to hear because it's noisy, it's loud, you need you're on a tour, there's Chatter. So for all different kinds of things beyond assistive listening. Well, Kim, we'll start there. Right? We talked about some of the the new place and advancements in technology. We'll probably talk about more the technology side a little bit later in the show. But what are some of the markets specifically in applications that you've seen? Some of these assist the listening devices evolve into? So the pandemic and more specifically, some of the mandates brought on by the pandemic really kind of brought to light the challenge or the need for hearing with clarity. You know, one application that you never really would have thought of until we were all challenged with wearing masks and seeing physically, you know, distance apart from each other was even on as simple as like a manufacturing plant where typically stations are side by side. So if somebody has a problem, they can turn to their colleague, say, hey, can you help me figure this out? Well, once those mandates were in place and people had to stay farther apart, it became more difficult to hear, especially if there was background noise such as a machinery, or chatter, or just other things going on that made it harder to hear. And if someone's wearing a mask and you can't read their lips, again, that really impacts clarity. So, it became obvious that for safety reasons, technology needed to be utilized so that people could communicate and move work forward. Well, I I love that you bring up the word clarity. Right? And and what's interesting is about the time of the pandemic, you can go back and look at statistics from, like, Netflix and folks like that. But the rise of captions actually continue to grow as well. Right? Not necessarily because folks were more hard of hearing than they previously were, but clarity became such an important focus, right, being able to determine the tone the tonality, maybe the the dialect, things like that clarity of audio and understanding became so important. What are some of the ways that you've seen some of those in or demands derive some of these applications? I think more and more, I think with the younger generations and now, you know, the generations that are buying the technology for our parents as our parents are aging, right? I mean, I had the experience of my parents going into an assistive living center a couple years ago and the children, we were the ones making that decision. So, we were the ones demanding that they have access to all the different things to make their experience better. But I think we're seeing that beyond just the aging population right? I mean, the younger generations want equitable experiences, and they want to go on a tour and here in their native language, or they want to take their grandparents their grandparents might not speak English or might not speak as well, so they want their grandparents to have the tour in their native language and children to have it in English, but they're hearing the same content, right? So I think that the generations are driving some of this, and I think some of the younger generations that are a little more bold in asking for what they want and demanding an equitable experience has really change where we're seeing technology use. I I love so much that you bring that up too. And and and I love to see how technology has enabled that. Right? Normally, when you go back and look at assisted listening or or audio ecosystems. They've been sort of closed ecosystems. Right? Whether it's a a transmitter and then kind of some portable receivers and someone, you know, with a microphone or or whatever But now you're seeing those ecosystems open up, whether it's Bluetooth based or WiFi based. How are some of these ubiquitous technologies being leveraged to help expand some of those capabilities instead of just everything having to be closed ecosystem. You know, I think the the popularity of the smartphone, right? And and I don't remember the statistic, but it's something like eleven billion smartphones are owned worldwide. And I think the BYOD kind of I guess, the inception of BYOD and people feeling more comfortable on these devices, and everybody is connected to a phone. I mean, it used to be that if you had to check out listening device from a counter. It was a big, kinda, clunky receiver and everybody knew. It's not discreet. Right? I tried to figure out where to everything's done now. Exactly. But now everybody wears earbuds or a headphone or and they're always looking at their phone or carrying their phone for So seeing somebody with an earbud in is not necessarily doesn't really draw attention to them. And I feel more comfortable in my smartphone so I can navigate it. I can find my audio settings. I can choose a channel. So I think the smartphone technology has helped push that along because people now have access where they didn't before. Right, with the new audio over WiFi technologies. If it's provided in the venue, you can simply download an app and connect to the audio on your phone. Or if my parents are there and they're not as comfortable on their smartphone, they might need to check out a receiver, but we also, we have more options. So, I think that technology in itself is just kind of banded access to people that normally probably wouldn't check out a receiver because they feel uncomfortable or they're embarrassed, but now they say, well, if I can hear this artist or I can hear this play with more clarity and nobody knows, why not? Exactly. That that and that's such an interesting driver too. Right? Is those desire the desires of the end user who are looking to help elevate that experience. Right? And in many cases, it's just seeking that additional clarity. Right? It's easy to talk over somebody in a museum, and I can yell. But you you talk about being able to to listen with a lot more intentionality, clarity, things like that's so important. And, you know, you talked about kind of the the upcoming generation of users. One of the things and this is globally too in our industry. There's a renewed focus a little bit on deI. Right? I would say a lot bit. Right? And part of that is ability and equity. And when you think about audio, audio is is in many ways the most paramount form of communication. Right? You look back and we could jump back thousands of years. But the the oral tradition or the the audible tradition was how stories were passed along to Right? And and in many ways, we're replicating that now as a society where we're able to to have conversations with folks. You know, what are some of the ways that you see audio play into some of these DEAI initiatives and making sure that folks, whether it's in the enterprise, whether it's in creative situations, have access to some of these tools? You know, I think that again, I think a lot of this was kind of, I guess, sparked by the pandemic and a lot of people realizing that they couldn't, they didn't have access to audio or equitable experiences. So, I think that some big Fortune five hundred companies are standardizing on audio, so that if somebody does visit their facility, they can take them on a tour whether they have a language barrier or need a hearing assistance, they can take them around the building, and they can experience the tour like everybody else. But I also think employees, right? Demand equitable experiences. They want to be able to sit in the break room and be able to listen to a channel in the language of their preference or they want to they want to sit in the back. They're and necessarily close to the audio source. So I think it's kind of everything's coming together, and we expect those better experiences everywhere we go, not just at a play, not just at a stadium, or not just, but we also expect that at work, and we expect that at church. Right? So again, I think there's a couple of things all coming together at the same time. I think there's demand. People are demanding better experiences. I think that companies see the importance of providing safety and those experiences at work. We spend so much time at work, right? And it's, you know, when you think during the pandemic, I can remember thinking when I wearing a mask and I attended a conference on how tired I was at the end of the day because I was straining to hear. Right? And when you don't have the ability to read lips and you can't hear with clarity, it really does become exhausting, right? And I think the employers see the need for clarity because it does help people make them more efficient and makes work better and easier. I love hearing that, and I love hearing how that really extends into the enterprise world as well. But I wanna jump just for a second from the clarity side of the world to the creative side of the world, I I remember I was in a museum recently where we had some devices plugged in. And as we would walk from section to section, the audio from this section would fade out. And as I would walk closer to the other exhibit, that audio would fade in. Right? Almost as if there were hyper targeted speakers at me. What are some of the some of the ways that you're seeing these these audio devices and audio tools being used creatively even just for above and beyond traditional clarity applications? You know, one thing that's important to us and in in fact part of our value proposition is providing seamless audio experiences and that's exactly what you describe. Right? Being able to walk from exhibit to exhibit and have the audio trigger based on proximity. So that's one of the big things that's important to us is providing seamless experience or guests don't have to do anything or even a student, imagine going from a lecture hall to classroom and walking in and having that audio triggered based on proximity. Right? So it's something that was set up by the system administrator So the student doesn't have to do anything, they don't have to change channels, they don't have to fumble with their phone, they simply walk from place to place, and the audio is triggered So I think that that, to me, is one of the most exciting advances in technology, is be able being able to provide experiences that are seamless and that just kind of happen, right? I think that to me that's kind of where the magic happens. Well, Kim, I I love your insight because you've been you've been doing this for a while with the Listen Tech folks, and you've been able to really dig into specific niches and verticals and have conversations that a lot of folks in the industry aren't able to have. So we're gonna have to find a way to have you back on the show whether or not we're talking about WiFi connectivity and audio devices, maybe even Bluetooth. The pro audio folks might yell at me if I have an episode. Let me let them know. We appreciate you coming on the show so much, Kim. Thanks thanks for giving us your time today. Thank you. Have a great day. And thank you all for joining us today on Pro AV today. Be sure to tune in next time.