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Tech Talk – Jan 2023 “THE SOUND OF SILENCE” – PROMOTIONAL NOISE CONTROL!

Fast becoming one of the top selling promotional technology products are wireless headphones and earbuds – they make for the perfect promotional campaign gift, loyalty reward / incentive, event giveaway or staff motivational incentive. Appealing to all age groups – these types of items have become an essential business tool as many companies continue with video meetings rather than face to face.


So in this article we are going to zoom in on the two current

technologies that are leading the way and both improve headphone’s user experience in different ways.



These are Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) and

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). Before we begin looking at the different types of noise cancelling, I will give a little historical background

As to how these technologies originated. Noise-cancelling headphones were originally developed for pilots to help deal with noise and so improving comfort during long haul flights.

The first consumer versions were designed for regular passengers to use on these long haul flights.


At first these noise-cancelling headphones were a luxury gadget but now are a more widely used product with prices dropping rapidly to reflect demand as many manufacturers now include this technology into all their product ranges not just the top end models.

This has opened up a clear opportunity for our market and for the perfect business gift as prices drop and more models become available and more people found these items useful in a variety of situations including video meetings over the last few years when we were all forced to work from home due to COVID.


So what’s the difference between the two technologies?

.

Environmental Noise Cancellation

Let’s begin with Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) this means the product is engineered to cancel or suppress all ambient background noise while protecting / enhancing the subject’s voice through the MIC.

ENC is enabled on new models during calls and neutralises the environmental noise by generating an “opposite” sound. The way that the headphones know what signals needs to be output to cancel the environment noise, is by recording them with an integrated microphone and processing them before creating the “cancelling output”.

The result is that your voice will be heard more clearly by the people

participating in the call, because of the background noise suppression, enhancing the overall quality of the call. Nevertheless, the user of the headphone or earbuds will not directly notice the difference. This technology is generally less expensive to produce and is becoming popular in many lower cost options.


Active Noise Cancellation

And then on other hand, we have Active Noise Cancellation (ANC),

which works in a similar manner as ENC although it only affects the output sound from the headphone’s speakers instead of the microphones. The benefits of ANC for the user of the headphones / earbuds is that it dampens out disturbing ambient noise via an anti-noise (or white noise). This anti-sound is produced from the surrounding sound, which is captured by microphones in the headphones and earbuds. Then the sound is analysed and twisted, so the person using the headphones or earbuds hears less ambient noise. This way it isn’t necessary to turn up the volume in a noisy environment, which is better for your hearing.


Both of these technologies are fast becoming what we all look for and are now standard in many leading brands such as Apple, Samsung, and Bose etc. The technology is now widespread which means it is more affordable than premium brands and perfect for promotional marketing.


For help or advice about how promo tech can be used in your next campaign, get in touch with the team @ DTI - contact 0844 875 7624 or sales@desktopideas.com.

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