MobileConnect Streaming Solution: Sennheiser and Hamburg Department of Culture Collaborative Effort for Barrier-free Participation and Experience of Culture

There are 3,000 blind people and 40,000 with visual impairment in Hamburg alone. And because of their disability, it means that their participation and enjoyment in cultural events are limited. This is why in the Hamburg Parliament in 2013, an initiative was started in order to address this issue. In an effort to increase their entertainment experience, visually impaired people are offered audio description of what’s happening in theaters’ stages.

The MobileConnect Streaming Solution, which is a result of the collaborative efforts of Sennheiser and Hamburg Department of Culture, also does the same thing. The solution is expected to improve the experience of blind and visually impaired people, when participating in cultural events. The technology was initially used in two specific theaters in the city, namely, the Altonaer Theater and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus.

In Hamburg's Deutsche Schauspielhaus, the special technology premiered last December where the audience were able to hear the audio description of Henrik Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman using their smartphones. The audio description was narrated by German actress Nina Petri.

MobileConnect can enable audience to listen to a real time audio description in the two specific theaters through their smartphones. What they only need to do is to install its free application to be able to use it.

Managing Director of Sennheiser Streaming Technologies, Jörn Erkau, is confident that MobileConnect makes the receiving of audio descriptions easy. He added, “Listeners can simply use their own smartphone and are no longer reliant on renting a receiver. That makes life much more convenient for people with a visual impairment who want to enjoy a cultural event.” Furthermore, he said, “With MobileConnect, we are proud to be able to offer a technical solution that allows the desire for an inclusive enjoyment of culture to be fulfilled so easily,”

Culture Senator Prof. Barbara Kisseler considers the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg and the Altonaer Theater to be making great contributions to the cultural lives of the blind and the visually impaired people. She also said, “Due to the support from Sennheiser and MobileConnect, a total of five performances could be offered with audio description during the winter season.”

Meanwhile, Karin Beier, Artistic Director of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, is happy with what the new service has to offer. “It is the aim of every theatre to reach as many people as possible, and audio description takes us one step closer,” Beier added.

Besides MobileConnect, Sennheiser also launched CinemaConnect, cinema’s streaming solution. Besides audio description, it also offers audio content transmissions and assistive listening. Hamburg’s Abaton cinema has been using this technology since May 2014.         

In addition to these application, there are also other Sennheiser products that you can enjoy. If you want to have a look at them, visit our store.