Vodafone: Haptic Suit Experience

The background

As the Official Connectivity Partner of Mighty Hoopla Festival in London, Vodafone wanted to use the power of its 5G network to promote accessibility and inclusion across the festival. We were honoured to help them do this by using cutting-edge technology in an experience that enabled deaf or hard-of-hearing audience members to feel live music like never before.

The execution

We created a haptic suit experience that translates music and crowd energy into vibrations that can be felt by the deaf community live at the festival in real-time, using wearable technology from Music: Not Impossible and Vodafone’s 5G network.

With 24 sensors on the suit, vibrations could be felt across the torso, shoulders, wrists and ankles for the ultimate full body experience, with adaptable vibration levels allowing fans to tailor the strength according to their level of deafness. The beats from each separate instrument on stage, along with the vocalist, were transmitted to their own dedicated sensors to enable users to feel every single layer of music as it happened.

In a world first, we also developed additional software using machine learning to translate crowd noise and atmosphere into vibrations along with the music on stage. Using five 5G receptors, we captured crowd reactions and translated these audio feeds into ‘VibraWow’ state data via machine learning. Thanks to Vodafone’s 5G network this was then fed back into the suits in real-time and strategically mapped to the body to convey changes in crowd energy, emotion and intensity – allowing guests to experience the full festival atmosphere.

The results

Debuted during Jessie Ware’s performance at London’s Mighty Hoopla Festival on 3rd & 4th June 2022, the haptic suits were thoroughly enjoyed by a group of deaf and hard of hearing friends from the Mighty Hoopla community, who for the first time could experience not only the music but also the energy around them. Our goal to achieve audio inclusivity for all members of the audience was achieved.