Public Funding for Nemisindo Limited

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) has greatly developed over the past decades but unfortunately sound design technology has not undergone such innovation. In games, podcasts, film and VR, sound designers still rely on huge sample libraries to source sound effects. Each interaction with each object needs to be assigned a pre-recorded sound, and adaptation is limited to post-processing on those sounds. This lack of plausible, generative sound limits the richness, realism and immersive quality of the auditory scene Our innovation is Procedural Audio technology that creates original sound using software algorithms. Our technology allows all sound effects to be created in real-time and with intuitive controls, without use of recorded samples, thus creating complete auditory worlds. Nemisindo (the Zulu word for 'sounds') is a start-up arising from successful InnovateUK projects, focused around procedural audio. One of our key offerings is an online service where users can create almost any sound effect, ready for use in their creative content. This represents a step change in sound design, where users create sounds they want rather than finding and editing recordings. But how can we get sound designers to embrace this new paradigm? To do this, we need to better understand our customers' perceptions of the technology, their motivations in using the technology and their likely behaviours. What would encourage them to use the service on a regular basis? What limits its use? Standard website analytics are not sufficient because they don't tell us the users' motivations. The Connecting Sound Design Communities (CSDC) project will apply human-centred design principles to foster the growth of sound design communities. We propose to build features in our online system where one does more than simply comment and discuss, more than simply share content. Instead, settings are shared, akin to sharing the instructions that allow content to be generated. This will allow us to generate, validate and implement ideas that both raise awareness of procedural audio and address the needs of the sound design community. The project will also gather deep insights into customers, their motivations and needs, beyond those needed for community building features. These insights will allow us to focus and enhance our commercial offerings and more accurately provide benefits that meet customer needs. These insights and our approach will also be shared at industry events, raising awareness of our novel approach and supporting wider use of community building and human-centred design in other domains.