Helmuts Bems, CEO of Sonarworks - Live Interview at CES 2018

**Revolutionizing Audio Technology: An Exclusive Interview with [Company Name]**

In an exclusive interview, we had the opportunity to speak with representatives from [Company Name], pioneers in developing innovative audio technology. Their latest breakthrough, designed specifically for headphones, has garnered significant attention in the industry. We delved into the world of audio clarity, exploring the intricacies of this revolutionary technology and its potential applications.

**The Evolution of Audio Technology**

According to our conversation, the company's initial focus was on speakers, which led them to develop their first product. As they expanded their reach, they shifted their attention to headphones, creating a tailored solution for audio enthusiasts. This expertise has enabled them to push the boundaries of what is possible in audio technology. The team revealed that their aim is not only to improve sound quality but also to solve industry-wide problems.

**Limitations and Future Plans**

While their current technology is limited to headphones, the company is committed to expanding its reach. They plan to bring their innovative app to consumer speakers by the end of this year, building upon their existing studio technology used by prominent studios worldwide. This move aims to capitalize on the growing demand for high-quality audio solutions in various settings.

**App Support and Platforms**

The [Company Name] app is designed to be compatible with multiple platforms, including professional products that support all pro platforms, consumer products that work seamlessly with Mac and PC, and will soon integrate into web applications. They are also planning to release Android and iOS versions in Q2, further solidifying their commitment to delivering innovative audio technology across various devices.

**Target Audience and Market Reach**

Our conversation centered around the company's target audience: music enthusiasts who value high-quality audio experiences. However, they are now exploring partnerships with larger music platforms to integrate their technology into existing music platforms like Spotify. This strategic move aims to expand their reach and make their innovative solution accessible to a broader audience.

**Pricing and Competition**

The [Company Name] app is priced at $79, offering users a perpetual license model that allows them to use the software with any favorite music. While they have not directly engaged in direct competition, their pioneering work has set a high standard for the industry. The company's five-year development process and $5 million investment in technology demonstrate their dedication to pushing the boundaries of audio clarity.

**Conclusion**

As we concluded our conversation, it became clear that [Company Name] is at the forefront of innovative audio technology. Their commitment to delivering exceptional sound quality and solving industry-wide problems has earned them a reputation as pioneers in this field. With plans to expand their reach into consumer speakers and integrate with various platforms, they are poised to revolutionize the way we experience music and audio.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome back you were watching live this is digital trends coverage of CES a live from Las Vegas this is pretty cool because day three so much tech has been discovered and explored and spoken about and we've got more happening right now with Ryan juanita from Digital Trends hey Ryan hey now we are talking more in the audio capacity but this is actually something that's super exciting it's one of the coolest things I've seen so far yes yeah they're really interesting I got to go heads on with this one to sort of hands-on ears on we'd say ears on in the biz oh yeah it's a thing oh my goodness we have the CEO of sonar works helmet Ben's here now I'm I want to know how sonar works works so we digitally adjust for headphone sound to deliver exact studio experience onto consumer headphones and it works very simple we we measure and profile headphones then the end user selects the headphones they use and voila we bring the exact studio sound so it's in essence an app you say you've created sort of software data and configurations and algorithms one might say yes to implants the average or any set of headphones to sound the best that they can possibly be exactly and the best and disrespect is what the sound was in the studio because if you look for the holy grail and sound and it's always what it's actually meant to be in the studio you can't go better than that right and you guys can do this with any headphones essentially any and you've also you've already mapped how many so we have at the moment we have mapped 120 headphones we plan to go to 200 in this quarter so yeah so can you recommend these for high-end headphones for Airport headphones basically anything you can get it's gonna improve it so we've measured headphones in a range from you know $5 headphones to up to $5,000 headphones we can improve all of them headphones that you start with still matter the better is the the headphone that you have the is the end result at the end of the day I did want to ask about that cuz I was wondering if a lot of headset companies were just a bit nervous at this technology because you know you're making their stuff better and like but we're better you're like well I can actually make it even it's it's a really one I want to go away from the notion of is it better or worse at the end of the day we are solving a problem of all the headphones sound different and if you look from a sound production point of view then at some point the sound engineers are wondering for who am i producing this and they end up making a compromise so the music sounds okay everywhere but it doesn't sound perfect anywhere so and we are solving this problem by bringing the same sound reference so it's not about better or worse it's really bringing about a studio reference like a clarity filter I think what's interesting so I got to listen to this right before we went on air and I I think I said damn dude damn Mohammed dude but yeah the thing about this is we have DSP everywhere digital signal processing is a big thing it's it's ubiquitous everybody's getting into it and our has been into it but the thing about it is a lot of the time when you hear it it sounds synthetic it doesn't really sound natural organic but when I listen to what you had it just sounded clean and clear sound and in fact I didn't think anything was happening until he hits the disable button and all of a sudden everything just like imploded on itself and became muffled yeah and you know I I'm not I have no reason to say this I was pretty amazed it was really really interesting so the reason for that is the sound engine that we use behind the behind this technology we are actually coming from a professional recording studio market it's been in the studio's now for a little over three years the amount of studios using this tech is in tens of thousands we have 15 grammy awarded engineers using that so it the technology has reached a limit where were the imperfections that you were talking about can be overcome now and as a human being you cannot differentiate it anymore as if I would make the changes physically in the in the product itself and it really is a natural sound a lot of headphones are superb AC these days and people like that but for those who are like sort of tired of the base implosion or the base explosion I should say that is just sort of rampant this is a way to get back to clean and clear audio that's what a great idea it's an infection not just that so we start by bringing all the sound to a studio reference level and that's what it should be and from there we allow users to personalize sound so we allow to personalize for the amount of bass that you might prefer so you can still you know have more bass if you want but every cleaner bass hopefully yes well the the effect is that usually when you do it physically you when you make more bass you lose the resolution in the mid ranges and high range so in when you do it through digital technology you can still have clarity in mid range and high range and and still have more bass the other thing we add on top of it is we can also now adjust for your hearing loss because the the actual adjustment is still done by the same sound engine sorry we can adjust for that as well well and a lot of people are doing the hearing loss of judge adjustment stuff but for me it doesn't always sound better it just sounds different you know and everyone has some bit of hearing loss you start losing your hearing when once you're born you start losing oh you you really got me there oh yeah so you know the adjustment often times is different but I don't know if it's usually better yeah but yeah what I heard from you guys was just sort of natural organic sounds though and what you heard was what the studio engineered heared in a studio and usually they actually do a pretty good job in making music sound the best it can I mean haven't you been wondering why these guys are spending you know sometimes weeks in a studio perfecting the sound and then somebody comes and says hey I can just improve on that well I think you can't like you really have in the studio till 4:00 in the morning with a symbol over and over again trying to make sure it sounds so I know exactly what you're talking about and that's maybe the most vexing thing about the audio world in general when you come to the professional level absolutely really cool stuff we've actually got a live chat happening we are streaming all over the world and some people are commenting about this technology and very very interesting ways Fisher Bates saying that they returned a set of headphones because the noise was too muddy for them is this almost like the solution so people don't have to return headphones that they can actually just improve them with the technology and an app yes yeah exactly yeah and yes and it's it's a very easy process to actually get the software you just go on our websites on our wards calm and download it and install on your computer so right now they just have it for PC and Mac yeah yeah and the smartphone apps are coming up q2 probably and I can still listen to Spotify or Apple music from the phone through the app through the app yeah I like that it's not another accessory that we have to buy it's another another dongle that we can lose yeah it's already in the phone I do have other questions so Gareth Conway is asking about the expansion of what kind of sound we'd get we're talking about it being studio quality referring to music only are you going to expand in-game the headsets we are looking into that so our primary target now is really music but game games and movies are right next there because it's all still you know all your content so and even though games are usually bigger more bombastic sound you still want clean you know professional sound yeah exactly like also says why is this technology limited to only headphones would you ever see future plans to have the app apply to speaker setups as well requests we actually started with speakers so our initial technology was speaker and we then went into the headphones so we want to focus a little on the headphone market now and then the planets towards the end of this year to bring also the speaker technology to consumer market it's already there in the studio so a lot of Studios use our technology to adjust for the studio monitors I need to get some of that yeah I need to get that for my speakers Grima wants to know what platforms support does the app support so at the moment we basically support all platforms so the professional products support all pro platforms the consumer products support Mac PC we can integrate it into web if we're talking about business to business and then q2 we have Android and iOS coming out it's the kind of thing there are some of the people here saying you really have to buy it before you try it yeah yeah so you do have to download you can actually you can actually try it on our webpage without even downloading the software just go on a web page and you can select your headphones and see what benefit will it give you there you go you were thinking I love that the demo that you played for us beforehand the choice of song was Rage Against the Machine you were having a big time I was it's an interesting observation you know most of the time when you go and listen to audio they will give you you know some vocals with some acoustic instruments yeah yeah it's it's it always sounds good because it's just a very easy music material we are very confident in what we bring to the table so that's why we chose Rage Against the Machine because a very complicated song to play correctly so I asked this consistent question because it is all about the consumer electronics who do you see your ideal consumer being to use this product at this point a music enthusiast somebody who would be naturally more into music listening and then now we are in talks with larger music platforms to integrate this technology into the music platform so I think for a you know wider market reach then it's we're gonna go integrating this into existing music platforms so you're saying this could potentially be in your Spotify app at the end of the day I think it's gonna be everywhere I think we are talking about the level of innovation on a scale that we had stereo you know some time ago and now it's everywhere and then we had multi-channel sound so I I believe this is the next thing coming because it's it makes so much sense and it actually solves an industry-wide problem yeah if someone does purchase it on their Mac or PC and then it does become available on iOS and Android does it follow through or do we have to repurchase it for a different device no it's it our philosophy is that we want to deliver it to all the platforms so we purchase it once and then we'll just the apps are then gonna come as an add-on to the PC and Mac software awesome how many have you got at the moment are you competing on in the app market here where are you sitting with that it's been just released so it's basically released it in CES so it's it's online now but we're too early to look into the data and you just flew in from where again I actually had to flew from Philippines back to Europe and then now to Las Vegas so it's been like 16 hour time zone change for me you feel really good like the rest of us probably noticed you have noticed a lot of people sleeping on table yeah 8 o'clock hits I joined those people that sleep wherever possible I will wrap up this conversation with one last question from Noah Samuel how much does this ask app cost and how much will be on our Android and iOS 2 it's currently a perpetual license model and it's it retails at $79 right so then you get it you can use it with any favorite music and then the apps are just gonna be add-on on top of that I'm interested scenario have you got any competitive competition on the market for this there is this you cannot really in this respect we we are actually the pioneer in this technology so no not really it's it took us five years to develop and we've invested over five million now in in tech development so it's not an easy not to crack yeah no kidding fantastic thank you so much by the way fighting through the jet lag to have a chat with us here at Digital Trends to talk about the latest technology and I want to call it like audio clarity yeah I think that's yeah absolutely really do appreciate at the time we do have more here live from CES we've got trends with benefits just around the corner which is a podcast with experts talking about what you have seen and heard at CES to stick around for thatwelcome back you were watching live this is digital trends coverage of CES a live from Las Vegas this is pretty cool because day three so much tech has been discovered and explored and spoken about and we've got more happening right now with Ryan juanita from Digital Trends hey Ryan hey now we are talking more in the audio capacity but this is actually something that's super exciting it's one of the coolest things I've seen so far yes yeah they're really interesting I got to go heads on with this one to sort of hands-on ears on we'd say ears on in the biz oh yeah it's a thing oh my goodness we have the CEO of sonar works helmet Ben's here now I'm I want to know how sonar works works so we digitally adjust for headphone sound to deliver exact studio experience onto consumer headphones and it works very simple we we measure and profile headphones then the end user selects the headphones they use and voila we bring the exact studio sound so it's in essence an app you say you've created sort of software data and configurations and algorithms one might say yes to implants the average or any set of headphones to sound the best that they can possibly be exactly and the best and disrespect is what the sound was in the studio because if you look for the holy grail and sound and it's always what it's actually meant to be in the studio you can't go better than that right and you guys can do this with any headphones essentially any and you've also you've already mapped how many so we have at the moment we have mapped 120 headphones we plan to go to 200 in this quarter so yeah so can you recommend these for high-end headphones for Airport headphones basically anything you can get it's gonna improve it so we've measured headphones in a range from you know $5 headphones to up to $5,000 headphones we can improve all of them headphones that you start with still matter the better is the the headphone that you have the is the end result at the end of the day I did want to ask about that cuz I was wondering if a lot of headset companies were just a bit nervous at this technology because you know you're making their stuff better and like but we're better you're like well I can actually make it even it's it's a really one I want to go away from the notion of is it better or worse at the end of the day we are solving a problem of all the headphones sound different and if you look from a sound production point of view then at some point the sound engineers are wondering for who am i producing this and they end up making a compromise so the music sounds okay everywhere but it doesn't sound perfect anywhere so and we are solving this problem by bringing the same sound reference so it's not about better or worse it's really bringing about a studio reference like a clarity filter I think what's interesting so I got to listen to this right before we went on air and I I think I said damn dude damn Mohammed dude but yeah the thing about this is we have DSP everywhere digital signal processing is a big thing it's it's ubiquitous everybody's getting into it and our has been into it but the thing about it is a lot of the time when you hear it it sounds synthetic it doesn't really sound natural organic but when I listen to what you had it just sounded clean and clear sound and in fact I didn't think anything was happening until he hits the disable button and all of a sudden everything just like imploded on itself and became muffled yeah and you know I I'm not I have no reason to say this I was pretty amazed it was really really interesting so the reason for that is the sound engine that we use behind the behind this technology we are actually coming from a professional recording studio market it's been in the studio's now for a little over three years the amount of studios using this tech is in tens of thousands we have 15 grammy awarded engineers using that so it the technology has reached a limit where were the imperfections that you were talking about can be overcome now and as a human being you cannot differentiate it anymore as if I would make the changes physically in the in the product itself and it really is a natural sound a lot of headphones are superb AC these days and people like that but for those who are like sort of tired of the base implosion or the base explosion I should say that is just sort of rampant this is a way to get back to clean and clear audio that's what a great idea it's an infection not just that so we start by bringing all the sound to a studio reference level and that's what it should be and from there we allow users to personalize sound so we allow to personalize for the amount of bass that you might prefer so you can still you know have more bass if you want but every cleaner bass hopefully yes well the the effect is that usually when you do it physically you when you make more bass you lose the resolution in the mid ranges and high range so in when you do it through digital technology you can still have clarity in mid range and high range and and still have more bass the other thing we add on top of it is we can also now adjust for your hearing loss because the the actual adjustment is still done by the same sound engine sorry we can adjust for that as well well and a lot of people are doing the hearing loss of judge adjustment stuff but for me it doesn't always sound better it just sounds different you know and everyone has some bit of hearing loss you start losing your hearing when once you're born you start losing oh you you really got me there oh yeah so you know the adjustment often times is different but I don't know if it's usually better yeah but yeah what I heard from you guys was just sort of natural organic sounds though and what you heard was what the studio engineered heared in a studio and usually they actually do a pretty good job in making music sound the best it can I mean haven't you been wondering why these guys are spending you know sometimes weeks in a studio perfecting the sound and then somebody comes and says hey I can just improve on that well I think you can't like you really have in the studio till 4:00 in the morning with a symbol over and over again trying to make sure it sounds so I know exactly what you're talking about and that's maybe the most vexing thing about the audio world in general when you come to the professional level absolutely really cool stuff we've actually got a live chat happening we are streaming all over the world and some people are commenting about this technology and very very interesting ways Fisher Bates saying that they returned a set of headphones because the noise was too muddy for them is this almost like the solution so people don't have to return headphones that they can actually just improve them with the technology and an app yes yeah exactly yeah and yes and it's it's a very easy process to actually get the software you just go on our websites on our wards calm and download it and install on your computer so right now they just have it for PC and Mac yeah yeah and the smartphone apps are coming up q2 probably and I can still listen to Spotify or Apple music from the phone through the app through the app yeah I like that it's not another accessory that we have to buy it's another another dongle that we can lose yeah it's already in the phone I do have other questions so Gareth Conway is asking about the expansion of what kind of sound we'd get we're talking about it being studio quality referring to music only are you going to expand in-game the headsets we are looking into that so our primary target now is really music but game games and movies are right next there because it's all still you know all your content so and even though games are usually bigger more bombastic sound you still want clean you know professional sound yeah exactly like also says why is this technology limited to only headphones would you ever see future plans to have the app apply to speaker setups as well requests we actually started with speakers so our initial technology was speaker and we then went into the headphones so we want to focus a little on the headphone market now and then the planets towards the end of this year to bring also the speaker technology to consumer market it's already there in the studio so a lot of Studios use our technology to adjust for the studio monitors I need to get some of that yeah I need to get that for my speakers Grima wants to know what platforms support does the app support so at the moment we basically support all platforms so the professional products support all pro platforms the consumer products support Mac PC we can integrate it into web if we're talking about business to business and then q2 we have Android and iOS coming out it's the kind of thing there are some of the people here saying you really have to buy it before you try it yeah yeah so you do have to download you can actually you can actually try it on our webpage without even downloading the software just go on a web page and you can select your headphones and see what benefit will it give you there you go you were thinking I love that the demo that you played for us beforehand the choice of song was Rage Against the Machine you were having a big time I was it's an interesting observation you know most of the time when you go and listen to audio they will give you you know some vocals with some acoustic instruments yeah yeah it's it's it always sounds good because it's just a very easy music material we are very confident in what we bring to the table so that's why we chose Rage Against the Machine because a very complicated song to play correctly so I asked this consistent question because it is all about the consumer electronics who do you see your ideal consumer being to use this product at this point a music enthusiast somebody who would be naturally more into music listening and then now we are in talks with larger music platforms to integrate this technology into the music platform so I think for a you know wider market reach then it's we're gonna go integrating this into existing music platforms so you're saying this could potentially be in your Spotify app at the end of the day I think it's gonna be everywhere I think we are talking about the level of innovation on a scale that we had stereo you know some time ago and now it's everywhere and then we had multi-channel sound so I I believe this is the next thing coming because it's it makes so much sense and it actually solves an industry-wide problem yeah if someone does purchase it on their Mac or PC and then it does become available on iOS and Android does it follow through or do we have to repurchase it for a different device no it's it our philosophy is that we want to deliver it to all the platforms so we purchase it once and then we'll just the apps are then gonna come as an add-on to the PC and Mac software awesome how many have you got at the moment are you competing on in the app market here where are you sitting with that it's been just released so it's basically released it in CES so it's it's online now but we're too early to look into the data and you just flew in from where again I actually had to flew from Philippines back to Europe and then now to Las Vegas so it's been like 16 hour time zone change for me you feel really good like the rest of us probably noticed you have noticed a lot of people sleeping on table yeah 8 o'clock hits I joined those people that sleep wherever possible I will wrap up this conversation with one last question from Noah Samuel how much does this ask app cost and how much will be on our Android and iOS 2 it's currently a perpetual license model and it's it retails at $79 right so then you get it you can use it with any favorite music and then the apps are just gonna be add-on on top of that I'm interested scenario have you got any competitive competition on the market for this there is this you cannot really in this respect we we are actually the pioneer in this technology so no not really it's it took us five years to develop and we've invested over five million now in in tech development so it's not an easy not to crack yeah no kidding fantastic thank you so much by the way fighting through the jet lag to have a chat with us here at Digital Trends to talk about the latest technology and I want to call it like audio clarity yeah I think that's yeah absolutely really do appreciate at the time we do have more here live from CES we've got trends with benefits just around the corner which is a podcast with experts talking about what you have seen and heard at CES to stick around for that\n"