Sweden is a country striving for equality, still many with hearing impairment witness that their everyday life is constantly limited by the fact that society isn’t inclusive enough. There is a vivid community for the Deaf in Sweden, but the general cultural scene is far from adapted to all. To be able to reflect upon life through culture and the stories of others is essential, be it a classical drama or a really good movie.

Sound is a vital part of experiencing film. When it comes to horror, it’s crucial for building tension. For 70 million people in the world, who are deaf, the sound is absent, and so is the chance to fully experience movies.

To include the Deaf in the magic world of cinema, we created a never-before-seen, or rather, never-before-heard tangible sound design. We teamed up with Per Sundström, the sound designer behind the internationally award winning horror movie ”Let the right one in”. Per used the abilities of Samsung's subwoofers as a springboard to create an inclusive soundtrack for the movie, consisting of low frequency bass sounds adapted for people who can’t hear. The work he did can easily be applied to other movies, creating possibilities for a new inclusive practice in the film industry.

The sound design was developed in collaboration with a reference group of deaf people, this to make absolutely sure that the new sound design would provide the experience that we were hoping for. By telling the story of our deaf reference group, we delivered a message about the impact of good sound. The solution was made by a reputed sound designer with the aim to create a technique that would be available to anyone who cares about inclusion within the film industry.

The sound design was made for a horror movie classic, to make it available to all, we released it for streaming on one of the largest platforms in the Nordics, SF Anytime, free of charge of course. The movie with the adapted sound design was released on Halloween – the Christmas eve of horror movies and also the tenth anniversary of the awarded movie, giving it a well deserved revival.

To spread the word about the initiative, the new sound design was pitched towards key media within culture, tech and the deaf community. We also created a campaign site and campaign movie explaining our innovation. At the site we connected the new sound design with the Samsung soundbars and subwoofers, and highlighted the reactions from our reference groups. The capaignmovie was used to promote the initiative in Samsung's own channels.

Feel the Sound had a media reach well over 20 million people. It was featured in the targeted cultural media. The campaign received positive feedback from the Deaf’s National Federation as well as the deaf control group that participated in the development of the sound. The campaign contributed to a large increase in positive attitudes against the brand, making Samsung the Swedish “Star Brand of the year”.

The campaign was also a statement to the film industry; since Samsung has elaborated this new technology there´s no longer any excuse for not using it and to exclude deaf from the full experience of movies.