Systems Integration Asia – April-May 2018

The Sophiscaon Extreme

Now, perhaps, the most interesng, the
headphones! beyerdynamic goes one step
further, with a revoluonary scale of
personalizaon- emphasizing an 'it's all
about you' emoon.

In a first-of-its-kind technology exploit, the
audio major worked on a very novel
applicaon to bring an extremely
personalized feature to the new headphone
series starng with
Aventho, Amiron and
Xelento. What might
look like a 'normal'
medical hearing test
one undergoes for
pung in a hearing
aid, the customizaon
involves a six-minute test, by means of Make
it Yours App – developed for the first me by
beyerdynamic, and in-house – which does a
three-minute each test for the le and the
right ear. The profile is then sent to the
headphone where it is embedded in the CPU
of the headphone. The CPU is rendered
strong with lot of memory capacity built-in,
and aided by a powerful DSP.

Once fed with the profile, the CPU
memorises the same, and from then
onwards, it is absolutely personal. Whatever
the user listens to through the headphone,
it's the person's own intelligible audio,
purely personalized to the user, absolutely
independent of the source. That's truly
phenomenal in consumer/pro electronics.

According to the beyerdynamic chief, the
audio major, in associaon with the Berlin-
based Mimi Hearing Technologies, over a
million ears were tested worldwide before
they gave final shape to
the Make it Yours App and
its funconalies.

“As a manufacturer of
headphones, we have a
responsibility of
protecng the users'
ears,” he vouches. “We
focused our work to not
only make hearing beer,
it is also less faguing, and
protects the user from
listening too long and too
loud,” he elaborates further. “We invested
heavily into developing this App in-house.
While we are anyway strong on the
hardware side, we added new talents on the

soware side and invested in me and

people to have the App developed to

precision.”

The App has just three features now, with

many more said to be in the offing. It has a

Sound Profile adjustment tool; it has a

Tracking tool, as it tracks how long and how

loud the user listens, and warns if the user is

listening past the limitaons of length and

decibels. Furthermore, there is a tool to

change the sensivity of the touch panel on

the headphone's right ear shelve.

Individuals can do their own tesng

and set up their own personalized

configuraon. They just have to

follow the direcons as per the

App. The system helps the user do

his/her own analycs and set the

frequencies that give an opmum

hearing level. “The iniave is to

offer the customers from both

consumer, and pro sides a system

that liberates them into a whole

new domain of audio experience,” Edgar

explains. “Like I said earlier, the boundaries

between the B2B and B2C are fading fast; we

needed to have a system that plays both,

suits both.”

According to him, the future of headphones

is in making them extremely personal. “So

much personal that it is like your personal

eye glasses; it's like glasses for your ears.”

From a sound point of view, it is one's

personal headphone; only that person can

listen from it the way (s)he wanted.

The Sequence

Interesngly, the sequence of this fascinang

change over apparently began over a year

ago, even before the

change of guard happened

at beyerdynamic, with the

current MD formulang

his value adds to the

company even as he was

sll contemplang coming

on its board. According to

him, it began as soon as

he started thinking about

beyerdynamic (some 12

months ago, about four

months before joining the

company) on how he

could make the company truly dynamic with

its market approach. That he had a good mix

of consumer and professional aspects of the

business, and a perspecve on what

connects an audio buyer beer, he decided

to bring all that to beyerdynamic to help it

reach its audiences in a manner that

addresses both.

The Dutch audio business leader had held

high profile posion on consumer side at

Sony, and on automove side at Harman.

That made a good mix. “At Sony, there were

a lot of touchskills between the consumer

and broadcast side of the business, and at

Harman there are a lot of touch skills for the

Pro side as well; and the last five

years I served as CEO of a well-

known German Audio maker based

in Berlin,” Edgar recalls, “I looked at

beyerdynamic's product porolio,

and found it has a great opportunity

on both the sides. While

beyerdynamic has been very strong

on conferencing- and Pro Audio

side, it hasn't been so much on the

Consumer side. But consumers who

knew beyerdynamic well are fans

and were always looking for more.

So, my opportunity is to bring it all together

and create new markets for the brand.” The

direcon taken is proven right in the form of

numerous innovaon and design awards

won over the last few months.

Seng the Agenda for the Market!

Whether it is passion-triggering FOX, or

break-free PHONUM or liberate

communicaon- UNITE, what beyerdynamic

brought to the fore appears truly dynamic

and opens a new dimension – perhaps not

just for the audio giant, but also for the

whole industry. Does it set an agenda?

“We are one of the iniators,” says the

beyerdynamic CEO. “It is the result of years

of constant interacon with our customers,

and figuring out what we needed to do to

meet the market expectaon and

requirements for the future- bringing the

best user experiences in whatever we do

and produce.”

Apparently charged up with the experiences

of his first 12 months with the company, the

beyerdynamic chief is buoyant. “We are

working hard on new ideas and

opportunies; we will connue to invest in

opportunies, innovate in technologies and

in our way communicate this to the

markets.”

The market is open for all that.

http://www.beyerdynamic.com

“The iniave

is to offer the

customers from both

consumer, and pro sides a

system that liberates them

into a whole new domain

of audio experience.”

-Edgar Van Velzen

INTERVIEW