Audio Description is becoming a significant part of television and film production.
What is it, why does it matter to you, and how are you supposed to deal with it?

Imagine watching a film with your eyes closed. Who just entered the room? What was in the letter? Why did everyone suddenly go quiet? For people who are blind or visually impaired, Audio Description can make the difference between simply hearing a programme and actually experiencing the story alongside everyone else.

So why does this matter to you? European legislation requires audiovisual media services to become progressively more accessible, with Audio Description explicitly part of that framework. And the requirements are already finding their way into production. 

At a SOUND DISCOVERY industry day at TV 2 – initiated and facilitated by Danish Sound Cluster – users, Audio Description professionals, broadcasters and technology developers came together to look at what this means in practice.

Nick Dunkerley sums up what we learned: why Audio Description matters, how it is produced today, why the current process is slow and expensive, and how the industry can make it work at scale. And is there a perhaps there is a silver lining.

Who Are My Conversational Partners?

Turn-Taking-Based Identification in Multi-Talker Scenarios

by Leila Eslami

In multi-talker environments, hearing aids face a challenge beyond noise reduction: identifying which talker the user intends to engage with. This presentation focuses on a turn-taking-based approach that uses voice-activity patterns to identify conversational partners. I will present the Conversational Alignment Score (CAS), its generalization to conversations with different numbers of talkers, and recent results showing how identification accuracy depends on the amount of observed conversational activity. I will also briefly discuss head movement as an additional behavioral cue that may support faster and more robust conversational partner identification.

by Asjid Tanveer

This study shows how portable headcaps (mobile EEG) can track which speaker a person is listening to in multi-talker environments. Using a contrastive learning framework, we use a deep learning three model pipeline where the framework matches EEG brain signals directly to speech patterns across three listening scenarios. The model outperforms traditional decoding methods and works in a subject-independent manner, offering a practical path forward for smart hearing aids.

Designing smart glasses and hearables that support awareness, comfort and safety

People are exposed to reproduced audio on a scale never seen before in the history of the technology. We are seeing a larger push towards the creation and use of smart glasses/hearables as non-specialist equipment meant for the general public. These kinds of devices render virtual audio into an acoustic scene that the listener remains physically present in, and do so continuously, in environments beyond what most manufacturers are able to account for in the development process. 

This introduces risks to our wellbeing, including masking real-world cues needed for awareness and safety, increasing cognitive load, and causing unpleasant or dangerous audio failures in unexpected acoustic conditions. Treble’s SDK allows you to prototype your devices and your algorithms in realistic, complex environments long before the manufacturing or release date.

From Parts to Products: Hybrid and Modular System-Level Analysis for Component Design

By Hossein Soleimani

Modern engineering demands robust predictability when integrating complex components into systems, particularly in vibroacoustics. This talk explores designing components based on system-level responses while preserving the freedom to analyze isolated parts experimentally or numerically. Attendees will discover how these frameworks minimize design iterations and enhance reliability across industrial applications.

Collaboration results in collaboration: an industrial PhD on modeling and experimental research in building acoustics

By Melanie F. Gotfredsen

Accurate and predictable prediction models for innovative building constructions are needed to minimize the use of resources from over-engineered designs. The attendees will learn more about the upcoming PhD project which seeks to develop predictive simulation tools that reduce the material, energy and financial resources required to design acoustically optimised buildings. Furthermore about how this project came to be with ROCKWOOL A/S, DTU and NIRAS A/S.

2025 PURIFI

2024 INVISIO

2023 ICEpower

2022 DPA Microphones

2021 Dorte Hammershøi / Stefania Serafin

About Aria 2 research glasses and the research behind Conversation Focus and Hearing Enhancement

Dr. Lunner has more than 30 years of experience spanning hearing technology, audio, cognition and human–machine interaction. In 1995, together with Oticon, he presented the DigiFocus, the world’s first hearing aid based on digital signal processing. His work on low-power digital filter banks became fundamental to several generations of hearing aids, used by millions worldwide, and contributed to two EU IST Grand Prizes.

Dr. Lunner subsequently pioneered Cognitive Hearing Science, demonstrating the importance of cognitive ability and working memory for speech understanding in challenging listening environments and for optimizing hearing-aid signal processing.

He has authored 200+ scientific publications, with approximately 12,000 citations (H-index 54), holds 40+ patents, and has reviewed research for leading journals and international funding agencies. He has also led 40 employees at Eriksholm Research Centre and built extensive collaborations with leading research groups across Europe, North America and Australia.

His contributions have been recognized with, among others, Linköping University Alumnus of the Year (2016) and the William Demant Fellowship (2017) for his role in shaping the future of audiology.

How do we benefit from technology without losing the core values of being creative, thinking human beings?

An audience interactive panel conversation about use and impact of AI in engineering, education and society.

What would it take for Denmark and the EU to follow the French and make an ISO standard for acoustic quality in restaurants and bars? 

We’ve talked and discussed acoustics in restaurants and bars for what seems like forever. In France, they’re trying a different approach and have introduced a standard. Is it time for us to follow the French and introduce a standard for acoustic quality here in Denmark?

Join us for an interactive session where we investigate potential solutions and look for ways to work actively on this matter on the other side of the session.

Elaine NG – Director of Research at Oticon

Elaine Ng is Director of Research at Oticon A/S, Denmark, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Linköping University, Sweden. A trained clinical audiologist, she brings more than 20 years of experience spanning audiological practice and hearing research. Since joining Oticon in 2017, she has led BrainHearing research, exploring the interplay between hearing, cognition, and communication, and how hearing aids can support better communication and cognitive outcomes for people with hearing loss.

Martin Bergmann – Co-Founder and CTO at Augmented Hearing

Martin has 28 years of experience in digital audio, AI, and software development. He holds an MSc in Engineering and has a track record of spotting technology opportunities that meet real user needs, and of taking them from first concept to market-ready product. Along the way he has led numerous initiatives across research, engineering, and product.

As CTO of Augmented Hearing, Martin sets the technical direction of the company and its Sharpi product: real-time, causal speech enhancement that deploys across a range of hardware platforms, from servers to embedded devices. Sharpi is built for demanding environments such as contact centers, emergency dispatch, and critical communications, where speech clarity matters. His long background in hearing care keeps the work anchored in how people actually listen and where communication breaks down, so the solutions are both technically advanced and practical to deploy.

Eirini Liapikou – Senior Audio & Embedded Software QA Engineer at Bang & Olufsen.

Eirini holds an MEng degree in Civil Engineering, MSc in Acoustic Engineering from DTU, and studied Sound and Music Computing at Aalborg University. Before B&O she worked on hearing and headset technology (GN,Oticon and more). She has published in JASA on lowering headphone listening levels through touch, and is building a real-time audio feedback system for judo falls. Outside engineering, she is as a performer/music producer, with airplay on Greek National radio.

How does the increasing use and potential of audio and earbuds affect our culture, society, and the way we interact with each other? And how does it affect our hearing health?

Designing Sound Around Human Needs

Mengqiu Zhang – Distinguished Engineer at HARMAN

Mengqiu Zhang leads the Denmark-based innovation team focusing on environmental noise control, spatial audio, and biosensing technologies for hearables. She holds a PhD from The Australian National University and previously worked at Ericsson on MPEG-I immersive audio standardization. Her expertise spans audio signal processing, immersive audio, intelligent listening systems, and next-generation audio experiences.

Tanveer Bhuiyan – Senior Engineer at HARMAN

Tanveer Bhuiyan is experienced in deep learning and signal processing, with a focus on DSP, hearing aid applications, and objective Sound Quality models. His expertise also includes sensor technology, audiology, and the analysis, interpretation, and feature extraction of biosignals such as ECG, PPG, and EEG. In addition, he has experience with embedded systems and programming in Python, MATLAB, and C++.

How startup innovation creates sound impact within healthtech, musictech, defence and deeptech, and what established companies gain from it.

SoundInvest, CEO Michael Böwadt and founders from Sound Hub Denmark’s international ecosystem share how new applications, technologies, partnerships and investment opportunities open doors to new solutions, markets and collaborations. Afterwards, you can meet the innovators and try their inventions in the demo area.

Designing sound as an interactive partner

We mostly meet sound as something played at us in the form of alerts, media, announcements. My work designs digital sonic experiences that respond to humans, reacting moment to moment to how people move, act and perform, with applications ranging from movement rehabilitation to augmented live music performance. 

This session asks what we gain when sound becomes a two-way exchange, and how to systematically design that exchange so the technology stays in service of the people using it.

Expanding experiences with multisensory stimuli

Live music brings people together, yet concerts often rely on hearing and familiar ways of participating. This workshop explores how haptic feedback, visualizations, spatial audio, and audience interaction can offer more ways to experience and shape a performance.

Working with performers and participants with diverse sensory abilities, we will discuss, create and evaluate inclusive concert experiences where accessibility becomes part of the artistic design.

An overview of the funding landscape, with a chance to get feedback and support on your own project ideas.

Explore how startups and SMEs have secured funding through programmes such as Innofounder, InnoBooster, EU funding programmes and other soft-funding opportunities.

This session is also an opportunity to pitch your own project ideas, explore potential collaborations, get feedback, and connect with relevant leads. We will also discuss the possibility of establishing an ongoing network or community around project funding and collaboration.