Easy Listen GmbH

Ginetta Fassio and Christian Simon, Easy Listen’s founders and managing directors, produce separate audio tracks for films and documentaries. These are customized for the needs of the hearing-impaired and senior citizens. While subtitles are already available for people who are completely deaf, there has been no alternative for the many people in the population with impaired hearing. “But people who are still capable of hearing want to still hear,” said Fassio.

The goal is therefore to optimize the ability to understand what is spoken in the film material. For this, the Easy Listen team slightly reduces the volume of the music in a film, for example, with the help of software, in order to make the spoken word easier to hear. “Naturally, we could simply eliminate all the sound effects,“ said Ginetta Fassio, “but then the viewer no longer has the larger experience of watching a film.”

Audio Tracks for Hearing-Impaired as Two-Channel-Tone

Easy Listen leads the way with its technique, which starts with the production of the film material, but it uses a technology which already exists: the possibility of sending multiple audio tracks. This way, television stations could send the audio track for the hearing-impaired on the second channel parallel to the original. Television stations have already shown interest in the innovative idea. In the development phase, the Easy Listen team worked closely with RBB, the Berlin-Brandenburg public station. Another partner was – and still is – the Deutsche Schwerhörigenbund e.V., the German Association for the Hearing-Impaired. “The most productive method was to ask the people who suffer from the problem,” said Ginetta Fassio.

Cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute

It took five years before the idea became a product ready for the market. Fassio and Simon started with the development during their studies at the Film and Television University in Potsdam-Babelsburg. Scientific support came from the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT) in Oldenburg. One of IDMT’s areas of research is on hearing aid development and provided Ginetta Fassio and Christian Simon with important information about the human ear. The Easy-Listen team combined what they learned from the audio-specialists with their own expertise as “Diplom-Tonmeister,” university-graduated masters of audio technology. Easy-Listen’s team won the state of Brandenburg’s up-and-coming-scientist-award and also Berlin Brandenburg’s Innovation Award in 2011.

In October 2011 Easy Listen GmbH was founded in Berlin. “Berlin simply offers young companies an incredible amount of opportunities,” said Ginetta Fassio. Furthermore the media sector in Berlin is represented in a broad fashion. “That means we find capable employees here and good contacts, too.” The two large Berlin trade fairs IFA and the Berlin Film Festival play their part, as well. “And we are active in the media.net berlinbrandenburg, the sector network,” said Fassio. “That is another of Berlin’s amazing possibilities.”