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5G haptic suits trialled for Deaf festival-goers

The wearable tech made its successful debut during Jessie Ware's headline set at the UK's Mighty Hoopla festival earlier this month

By James Hanley on 22 Jun 2022


Singer-songwriter Jessie Ware has called for 5G-enabled haptic suits for Deaf and hard-of-hearing music fans to be rolled out at live music venues after they were successfully trialled at a UK festival.

Developed by Vodafone and Music Not Impossible, the wearable tech made its debut during Ware’s headline set at the 20,000-cap Mighty Hoopla festival in London’s Brockwell Park earlier this month.

Using the latest haptic technology, people wearing the suits are able to feel the music through vibrations delivered across touchpoints on the wrists, ankles and torso. Innovatively, Vodafone has adapted the suits to convey the atmosphere of the crowd as well as the artist’s performance, using 5G receptors to capture the crowd noise and feed it back through the suits as vibrations in real-time.

“Music is for everyone and it’s amazing to be able to change the way my deaf and hard-of-hearing fans can experience my shows”

“When I first heard about this tech I was blown away, and to see the reactions of the fans who have tried them already has been incredible,” says Ware. “Music is for everyone, and it’s amazing to be able to change the way my deaf and hard-of-hearing fans can experience my shows.”

Ware adds she would like to see the tech go on to adopted more widely at concerts moving forward.

“I’m really excited by their potential and would love to see these suits available at as many of my performances as possible in the future,” she says.

 


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