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Those going to Coachella 2016 can jump the 25,000-person waiting list to buy the Live Nation-backed "remote control for your ears"
By IQ on 20 Jan 2016
image © Doppler Labs
Coachella 2016 attendees will receive early access to Doppler Labs’ Here ‘active listening’ earbuds.
The wireless in-ear headphones and Here app – a “remote control for your ears” which allow users to send sounds from the outside world (picked up by external microphones) through a digital signal processor (DSP) and customise the audio via a volume knob, equaliser and effects including reverb, flange, echo and, curiously, vinyl crackle – received investment from Live Nation, WME and Universal Music Group in June last year. The investment was concurrent with a Kickstarter campaign which raised US$635,189 of a $250,000 goal.
The Here system has so far only been released to a select number of Kickstarter backers and a list of music business insiders, including Mark Ronson, Hans Zimmer and Tiesto. A waiting list to receive the technology is 25,000-strong, but those attending Coachella will receive a code allowing them to purchase Here before anyone.
Among Doppler Labs’ suggested applications for Here are live music (utilising a “live EQ”, bass boost and reverb), an office (noise mask, “reduce chatter”), a busy urban environment (“reduce subway”, “reduce traffic”) and an aeroplane (“suppress engine” and, most importantly, “reduce baby”).
This year’s Coachella festival, in Indo, California, will be headlined by Guns n’ Roses, Calvin Harris, Ellie Goulding, Ice Cube and the reunited LCD Soundsystem.