Sound Design Applications

Jet2 couldn't have prayed for better marketing Capital Radio has NAILED this. The Jet2.com and Jet2holidays voice-over artist & Jess Glynne combo has reached the serious levels of viral that culture agencies promise daily in pitches. It's a brilliant example of what's possible, but no one understands how and why this happened. Sure, it scratches our corny British humour. And yes, they've consistently ploughed enough cash into TV advertising to actually get this noticed. However, there's a far bigger lesson here that all marketers can use to ensure effectiveness every day. Something we all can do better at. Not just chasing viral hits. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨. Audio has become more important in marketing: 1. TV advertising now struggles to get full visual attention, with us all sat on our phones. Making audio more important. 2. Audio works differently, with audio distinctive brand assets proven to increase brand recognition in System1 research with Effie Worldwide. 3. TikTok has moved social ads back to sound on. Our research shows sonic assets and jingles are far more effective than other brand asset options. 4. MassiveMusic and Les Binet have now shown that the right music choice can create brand pricing effects 7 times more effectively. Yet we still often leave music selection to the end of the creative process? It's time to make the jingle cool again. It's time to wake up to the power of audio. All the top marketers are building audio assets. Don't get left behind. My weekly free column in The Drum today goes into all the evidence, including an experiment where we tried various soundtracks on the same ad and saw its predicted effectiveness double: https://lnkd.in/ePVfn_pn I share #advertising and #marketing insights daily, follow for more. Global

No matter how expensive your beamforming microphones are, poor room acoustics guarantee they'll underperform. Room acoustics set the performance ceiling for even the best audio systems. No amount of DSP overcomes poor environmental design. The Noise Floor Reality. AVIXA's Dynamic Range standard is explicit: the audio system's noise floor must minimally increase the room's ambient noise level. Conference rooms should target NC 25-30 - ambient noise below 30 dBA. Most HVAC systems miss this without lined ductwork, remote plant positioning and low air velocities. Beamforming arrays isolate speakers from background noise, and manufacturers even provide 'exclusion zones' to dodge known noise sources. But DSP cannot add what was never captured. HVAC rumble sits in the same 100-300 Hz range as speech fundamentals - no processing fully recovers that clarity. The RT60 Connection. Push reverberation above 0.6 seconds (target is 0.4-0.6) and consonants get masked by lingering vowels. Combine that with high ambient noise and expensive microphones end up fighting physics - and physics wins. The EASE Principle. This is why Environment comes before Audio in GJC's EASE methodology. Optimise acoustics and ambient noise first, then specify technology to enhance that foundation, not fight it. A modest system in a well-designed room beats premium kit in a compromised one. Measure RT60 and NC before you specify anything. Acoustic treatment costs a fraction of premium audio gear - and lets that gear finally do its job. My bi-weekly newsletter 'Industry Standard' explores subjects like environmental acoustics and AV standards. Subscribe: https://lnkd.in/ekQ3AdCb What environmental factors do you prioritise before technology specification? #MicrosoftTeamsRooms #AVTweeps #EASEMethodology #HybridMeetings #AVUserGroup #LTSMG #Schoms #AVIXA

Managing Industrial Noise: Causes & Safety Precautions 🔊⚠️ Noise pollution is a significant hazard in many industries, affecting workers' health and efficiency. Prolonged exposure to high noise levels can lead to hearing loss, stress, reduced concentration, and communication difficulties, increasing the risk of workplace accidents. Causes of Industrial Noise: 🔹 Machinery & Equipment: Heavy-duty machines, compressors, and turbines. 🔹 Impact Processes: Metal cutting, hammering, and welding. 🔹 High-Speed Operations: Fans, conveyors, and ventilation systems. 🔹 Vehicle & Traffic Noise: Forklifts, trucks, and transport equipment. 🔹 Explosions & Pneumatic Systems: High-pressure air tools and blasting. Noise Control Measures – Applying the 5 Stages of Risk Management 1️⃣ Elimination 🚫 ✔️ Replace noisy processes with quieter alternatives. ✔️ Shift from mechanical to hydraulic or electric systems where possible. 2️⃣ Substitution 🔄 ✔️ Use low-noise machinery and tools. ✔️ Replace impact processes with vibration-dampened alternatives. 3️⃣ Engineering Controls 🏗️ ✔️ Install sound barriers, acoustic enclosures, or silencers. ✔️ Maintain and lubricate machinery to reduce friction noise. ✔️ Use damping materials to absorb vibrations. 4️⃣ Administrative Controls 📋 ✔️ Implement job rotation to limit noise exposure duration. ✔️ Establish quiet zones for workers’ recovery. ✔️ Conduct regular hearing checks and provide noise awareness training. 5️⃣ Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) 🎧 ✔️ Provide earplugs or noise-canceling earmuffs to workers. ✔️ Ensure PPE fits properly and is used consistently in high-noise areas. Conclusion Industrial noise is a serious but manageable risk. By following the hierarchy of control measures, companies can minimize exposure, protect workers' health, and create a safer work environment. Prioritizing elimination and engineering solutions over reliance on PPE ensures long-term safety and compliance. 🔊 How does your workplace manage noise hazards? Share your thoughts below! 👇 #WorkplaceSafety #IndustrialNoise #HearingProtection #RiskManagement #NoiseControl #SafeWorkEnvironment

The way we interact with AI is about to change. Right now, most of us talk to AI tools through a screen. We type prompts. We copy and paste. We read responses. Even voice assistants like Siri or Alexa are tethered to a device sitting on a bench or in our pocket. But something is shifting. Meta has been steadily expanding its glasses lineup; first with Ray-Ban and now Oakley with Prada on the way. And notice the marketing language! These aren't being marketed as "smart glasses" anymore. They're "AI glasses." That rebrand alone tells you where this is heading. These devices aren't trying to put a screen on your face. They're putting a camera, a microphone, and a speaker into something you're already wearing. The camera sees what you see. The microphone hears your conversation. The speaker responds directly to you without blocking the sounds around you. Suddenly an AI assistant has context — not just what you type, but what you're looking at and what's happening around you. I've worked extensively in this space. Solution engineering and sales at Lenovo and RealWear, years spent watching wearable XR hardware bets come and go. This feels different. The value proposition has shifted from "look at this display" to "let me help you while you go about your day." I've already made the shift to voice-first interaction. I use Wispr Flow to talk to apps across my devices — drafting, searching, controlling workflows without hardly touching a keyboard. Once you experience that fluidity, typing feels like friction. A form factor that adds vision to voice, in something you're already wearing, feels like the obvious next step. No doubt we'll revisit the privacy debates. Workplace adoption won't happen overnight. But if you're thinking about where voice-first AI goes after the smartphone, this is the signal I'd be tracking. #safetytech #safetyinnovation #meta 📷 courtesy of Oakley x Meta

Remember those old international calls where there was just enough delay that both people kept talking over each other? When it comes to voice, Latency is not just a metric. People feel it immediately. When it is low, conversation feels natural. When it is not, you get awkward pauses, clipped interruptions, and responses that arrive just a little too late. That is what makes real-time voice systems so interesting to build. WebRTC gives you a strong foundation for low-latency audio, but at the scale of products like ChatGPT voice and the Realtime API, the architecture around it matters just as much as the protocol itself. Most of our voice sessions are one person talking to one model. For that kind of workload, the team made a thoughtful choice: keep the real-time session logic in one place, and use a very thin global relay layer to get traffic onto our network quickly and send it to the right destination. One detail that stands out for me is that the relay can figure out where the first packet should go from information already present in the WebRTC handshake, instead of doing an extra lookup on the critical path. Small technical choices like that add up when you care about how quickly someone can start speaking and how natural the experience feels once they do. The result is a system that is easier to scale globally, works cleanly with standard WebRTC clients, and keeps latency low for products used by hundreds of millions of people. This is the kind of infrastructure work most users never see directly, but absolutely feel in the product. Kudos to the real-time systems team: https://lnkd.in/gXjxCgUE

Stop ignoring audio. It’s 50% of your film’s impact. Let’s be honest— We all obsess over the visuals: 🎥 The lighting 🎥 The color grade 🎥 The camera angles But audio? It’s the underdog that makes everything click. Here’s the truth nobody tells you: People will forgive average visuals. They won’t forgive bad audio. A few seconds of poor sound = instant scroll, instant disconnect. At our post-production studio, we’ve learned this the hard way: → A stunning short film once fell flat… until we rebuilt the sound design from scratch. → A microdrama lacked punch—until we layered in ambient textures and custom foley. → One ad went from average to electrifying with nothing but a smarter audio mix. Why does it matter? Because sound makes you feel. The tension. The intimacy. The goosebumps. It’s what turns watchers into believers. 🎧 Background score builds emotion 🎧 Silence builds tension 🎧 Breaths, creaks, static — they immerse In every film, ad, or web series—audio is your invisible powerhouse. So if you’re investing 90% in visuals and leaving sound as an afterthought... You're leaving 50% of your film's impact on the table. Let the visuals impress. Let the audio connect. That’s how you create something unforgettable. 🎬 What’s your favorite example of sound elevating a story?