The struggle against noisy recordings of interviews and speeches is a significant challenge for audio engineers, but one German startup aims to address this issue with a unique approach using generative AI technology to enhance voice clarity in videos.
Recently, AI-coustics emerged from stealth mode with €1.9 million in funding. Co-founder and CEO Fabian Seipel explains that AI-coustics’ technology surpasses standard noise suppression methods to work seamlessly across different devices and speakers.
Seipel, an audio engineer, partnered with Corvin Jaedicke, a machine learning lecturer at the Technical University of Berlin, to establish AI-coustics in 2021. Their inspiration stemmed from encountering poor audio quality in online courses during their time at TU Berlin.
Their primary goal is to elevate the quality of digital interactions, making every conference call, consumer device, or social media video as clear as a professional studio broadcast. Seipel stated in a TechCrunch interview.
While the market for AI-powered noise suppression and voice enhancement is already competitive, AI-coustics stands out with its distinctive approach in developing AI mechanisms for noise reduction. The startup uses a unique training model based on speech samples collected in their Berlin studio.
AI-coustics is committed to diversity in sample contributors to eliminate bias and ensure the technology works effectively across various languages, speaker identities, ages, accents, and genders.
Through the use of its platform, AI-coustics delivers on its promise to enhance clarity in video and audio recordings. The technology has potential applications in real-time speech enhancement and could be integrated into devices like soundbars, smartphones, and headphones for automatic voice clarity enhancement.
Currently offering a web app, API for post-processing, and an SDK for integration into existing workflows, AI-coustics generates revenue through subscriptions, on-demand pricing, and licensing. The company has garnered five enterprise customers and 20,000 users to date.
With plans to expand the team and enhance the speech-enhancing model, AI-coustics stands poised to revolutionize the audio industry with its innovative technology. The startup received funding from Connect Ventures, Inovia Capital, FOV Ventures, and Ableton CFO Jan Bohl to further its development and market reach.
Seipel also addressed concerns about audio mastering technology potentially displacing human audio engineers’ jobs, emphasizing AI-coustics’ ability to automate time-consuming tasks and maintain high speech quality in audio production processes.
