(Paris) Vibrating backpacks intended for deaf and hard of hearing people will be offered from the 2023-2024 season at the Philharmonie de Paris, it announced jointly with the company SoundX, the originator of this technology.
The equipment, a connected backpack controlled by an app, picks up ambient sounds using artificial intelligence. This “identifies everything that happens in the audio spectrum” and transcribes the sounds in the form of vibrations, detailed to AFP Damien Quintard, founder of SoundX.
After “eight months of testing”, these backpacks will be deployed next season “to be operational on the entire Philharmonie offer in 2024/2025”, indicated its director Olivier Mantei.
Systems of ” packs vibrating” have already been used in several musical events in recent years. But they “only transcribe the bass (the lowest notes of a chord, editor’s note)”, insisted Damien Quintard, adding that the solution proposed by SoundX would make it possible to capture the musical frequency “up to 20,000 hertz”, against 100 with the current options.
The deputy director in charge of social responsibility at the Philharmonie de Paris, Sarah Koné, assured that the device would be free for spectators who will always benefit from a reduction of 20% on the price of their tickets.
No need for an individual phone to connect to the application available on iPhone and iPad: in its halls, the Philharmonie controls the vibrating backpacks using a single tablet.
In parallel with the deployment of this device, shows adapted to hearing disabilities will be offered by the Philharmonie, which already has alternatives for different disabilities.
“Three “changed” concerts and a show for children on the story of Babar, translated into sign language”, will, among other things, be on the program for the 2023/2024 season, said the head of the Philharmonie’s accessibility department, Helen Lamotte.
Eventually, Damien Quintard believes that these vibrating backpacks could free themselves from theaters and become a daily aid for deaf and hard of hearing people, allowing them, for example, “to distinguish the siren of an ambulance from that a horn or the barking of a dog.