It’s Not Augmented Reality — It’s AUD-mented Reality: Mixhalo Democratizes HD Sound at Live Events
Have you ever heard someone say, “I like watching (insert live event) better at home on my TV than I do live.” When you think about all the comforts of home, it can be difficult to justify the expense of seeing your favorite team or band play live. Why pay for the substandard sound and visual quality of the back-row when you can save your cash, stay home, and watch the concert or game in sweet sweet High Definition (HD)? But what if you didn’t have to choose between an HD experience and a live experience? What if you could have both?
Enter Mixhalo — the company that makes every seat at a live event a front-row seat, at least when it comes to the audio aspect of the experience.
Here’s how Mixhalo is stealing the show.
How Mixhalo Amplifies the UX at Live Events
As most people know, sound quality differs drastically between the front row and the back row of concerts and sporting events. At most big venues, distance from the stage or the field combines with noise from the audience in a way that compromises the audio-quality for nearly every fan to some degree — regardless of where they sit.
Mixhalo aims to change that by delivering HD, soundboard-quality audio right to the smartphones and headphones of concert goers and sports fans at live events. Mixhalo’s founders Mike Einziger, the guitarist in Incubus, and professional violinist Ann Marie Simpson came up with the idea for Mixhalo after an Incubus rehearsal for the 2016 Grammy’s. During the rehearsal, a member of the Incubus crew used a radio-pack to listen to the performance from the audience section. Up until that point, only performers and VIP guests used the radio packs to hear audio directly from the soundboard. Essentially, the packs allowed performers to hear themselves above the noise of the crowd so that they could stay in tune and on key.
That’s when it clicked for Einziger. Why couldn’t every audience member receive HD audio from the soundboard and listen to a concert the way it was intended to sound? With the help of Simpson, some of Einziger’s friends from Harvard, and engineers from cloud networking company Cisco Meraki, Einziger and his team came up with Mixhalo.
Here’s How It Works:
By downloading the free Mixhalo app onto their smartphones, audience members at a live event can stream HD audio directly from the soundboard to their phones. Rather than relying on wifi technology, which increasingly slows down with each user, Mixhalo utilizes technology that’s closer to radio than anything else. Steaming data in this way theoretically allows any number of users to stream HD sound to their phones and headphones without lag or compromise in the quality of the sound. No matter where they sit in a stadium or a concert venue, fans can now experience the quality of sound that takes them to the front row or, better yet, the stage or field itself.
Does the technology dampen the sense of connectivity you get from experiencing a live-show with other people? That’s a fair question. After all, concerts are social events. That’s part of their value and appeal. Losing the social aspect of the concert experience is a legitimate concern. Have you ever tried having a conversation with someone wearing headphones or earbuds? It’s just not the same.
According to Mike Murphy, the technology editor for Quartz, his experience with Mixhalo at an Incubus concert led him to report that “It was simply one of the most enjoyable live concerts I’ve ever experienced. Because I could actually hear it.” So, perhaps there is potential for Mixhalo’s tech to amplify live experiences after all.
Here are some other ways Mixhalo intends to use the tech beyond rock concerts.
Mixhalo’s Use Beyond Concerts
While the tech evolved to better serve concert-goers, Mixhalo offers a range of uses that extend well beyond rock concerts. Einziger envisions the app being used for everything from sporting events and meetings to political rallies and mass assemblies for groups like the United Nations. At sporting events, the technology could stream commentary from the announcers directly to the headphones of guests. Bands could also use Mixhalo to sell merchandise. Venue staff could use the app to send messages to attendees — a feature that would prove especially useful for managing crowds and security concerns.
Seeing the potential in Mixhalo, several bands and artists, including Aerosmith, Metallica, Pharrell Williams, and Charlie Puth, have already used the technology at their live shows. Back in September, the Staples Center in LA also announced it would make Mixhalo available for fans attending Clippers, Lakers, Kings, and Sparks games. Mixhalo’s founders also see the technology helping fans enjoy Broadway musicals.
Through Mixhalo, no fan has to sacrifice their audio experience in order to enjoy the social aspects of a live event. According to Mixhalo’s CEO, Marc Ruxin, “We’re really trying to democratize music for everybody. We want every seat to be the best seat in the house.” Through their clever use of cellular tech, Mixhalo sets itself up to make that happen.
By providing HD audio, Mixhalo amplifies every other non-audio aspect of the live experience. Having been tested in a variety of settings and refined to the point where it’s easily scaled and installed, the potential of Mixhalo seems limited only by the boundaries of human imagination.
Rather than distracting from a live event, Mixhalo demonstrates that technology, when used in the right way, contains the potential to amplify and create increased access to some of the best human experiences. No matter what industry you’re in, that’s a lesson we can all learn from.
How can we use technology to democratize access to information or experiences? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
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The above piece was written by the Latitude Supercharge Research Team, which includes Connor Beck and Carter Jensen
Supporting Resources —
- The future of live music lives on your smartphone
- MIXHALO OFFERS FANS AUD-MENTED REALITY
- Mixhalo raises $10.7M to bring better sound quality to live events
- https://www.mixhalo.com/
Resources and original reporting of the above points covered by the following publications — Quartz, Tech Crunch, Mixhalo.com, YouTube, Venues Now
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