WHAT DOES THE FUTURE SOUND LIKE?
Everything we do here at Sigma Connectivity is based on communication, on sending information from one device to another. It can be ones and zeros sent with radio-waves, signals that speak a certain language at a certain wavelength. Machines talking to each other is a fairly new occurrence, at least in the scope of mankind. Communication between man though, is ancient. We have been talking to each other since the beginning of man. With signals, signs with hands and body and with the voice using the body’s own microphone and speaker. Communicating may have been with us humans forever but it never ever gets old. That is why we always see new opportunities in getting a message across. We love everything about voices, noises and sounds and what we can do to improve how people connect with each other but also with machines and devices.
James Stansfield, Senior Audio and Acoustic Engineer
James Stansfield is a Senior Audio and Acoustic Engineer and one of our experienced experts in the Audio Department. James was born and raised in Aberdeen, Scotland, and knew early on that he wanted to work with sound and music in some way. James pursued a Bachelor’s Degree (With Honours) in Audio Technology at Salford University, where he graduated in 2006. After his graduation he spent two years at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester, where he oversaw all things audio and video related in the museum and in their exhibits. James came to Sweden in 2008 where he, as well as many others in our staff, was employed by Sony Ericsson. An employer that gathered a unique crowd of competence and experts to the small town of Lund. James, among many others of our experienced crowd at Sigma Connectivity, has been with us from the start in 2013, building up the Audio Lab to today’s unique and world leading status. The lab and the testing rooms are constantly improved and are kept up to date with the latest audio technology, which now also include the digital part of voice recognition where algorithms are combined with the pure physics of sound and audio. The team are also being constantly updated and since everybody has a pure interest in sound and audio and two thirds of the group are musicians playing in bands their expertise is also growing in their spare time.
NOISE OR VOICE?
Everybody has a pair of ears and most people have an opinion on what “good” sounds like. Our job is in many ways finding what suits the largest number of users and listeners. This is something we work on all the time, even outside this specific project.
The possibilities for voice recognition and other ways of communicating with a device with our voice are endless. Soon there will be no need for wake words like “Hey Google” and we will have a flawless voice recognition and a voice command where you can ask a question and then get a question back to handle even the more complex commands and requests you may have. It will be as flawless as a conversation with a real person. The device will intrinsically know if you are addressing it or not like a real person does.
ROOMS FOR IMPROVEMENT
James Stansfield & Michael Magill, Senior Audio and Acoustic Engineer
We have done some recent and major investments in our Audio Department to tune up our testing rooms. We now have three of them and the fourth is under completion. These testing rooms lets us simulate any type of room or real sound environment that we want. It can be normal life in a home, a conference auditorium, a hospital ward, an elementary school classroom or a car on the highway. Giving us perfect conditions for testing our devices and solutions in real life situations.
Almost all of our projects at Sigma Connectivity involve audio of some sort, which means that these rooms are frequently being used. And our HATS (Head and torso simulators) are a busy bunch. They are also truly loyal and never complain, regardless of what noise and sound we throw at them. One of them has been around since the 80’s. His electronics might be a bit dated, but he still come in handy, time to time. We have the latest equipment at our disposal but when it comes to sound and audio one must not forget that it in many ways it is just basic physics where we are “pushing” air. We love this connection between the physical, analogue and the digital high tech of working with audio.
Our development of expertise and competence are mostly done within the projects. It’s learning by doing what you love. We all have our hearts in it, which is a guarantee for improving ourselves as well as our lab and our testing rooms.
WHAT IS A DREAM AUDIO ASSIGNMENT FOR US?
Sigma Connectivity Audio and Acoustic Expert team
We love a good challenge where we don’t have all the answers and solutions right away. We also love to get our hands on something we never have done before, something totally different that will intrigue and spark our intellectual curiosity. Assignments like these push our boundaries and make us come up with even better and smarter solutions.
A dream partner could be someone in the music business i.e., doing something innovative with music instruments. Taking something old and use it in a new way or place. Computer games are a growing and extremely fascinating area for us to venture into. Sound plays a huge part in the success of a computer games and films and the possibilities of doing even more are just enormous.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE SOUND LIKE?
There is a lot more work to be done in optimising voice recognition and finding all the areas where it has a relevant and useful part to play. These areas will change and grow alongside with the development of this technique. We find this to be a really exciting area to explore. That and evolving our augmented and virtual reality program where we have a fantastic opportunity to enhance the AR and VR experience both for recreation and for professional use.
The next level for audio is to increase the feeling and the quality of sound. The aim is to deliver sound and audio in such a way that you don’t even notice it.
To do this we have to keep on turning up the volume on our expertise and knowledge in our Audio Department, making sure that we are the first to know what the future sounds like.
James Stansfield & Ola Lilja, Sales Director