QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

SONAD is an innovative platform for packaging multimedia content in various digital formats, including text, video, audio, images, or links and delivering it to phones via any media channel: radio, TV, Internet, arena and print. by using SONAD’s unique sound and visual codes. The content packaged as multimedia capsules (Sonas) is delivered to the phones in real time and is made available through a highly functional on-screen user interface.

The SONAD platform provides a new way of distributing multimedia content in various formats, including text, video, audio, images, or links, by using inaudible sound codes and images. The sound codes, carried in broadcasts’ traditional audio tracks, provide a link to relevant information and data. All of this information is conveniently packaged as multimedia capsules (Sonas) and is made available at users’ phones, in real time by using a highly functional on-screen user interface.  Learn More

All broadcast content delivery, including advertising which traditionally relies on radio, television or public address systems, has limited effectiveness; the aired messages do not leave a lasting impression in peoples’ minds, and can be stressful for listeners who try to remember phone numbers, email addresses, or any other important information needed. In addition, they are disruptive, annoying the customers and diminishing their enjoyment of programs.

In more technical terms, traditional broadcasting is a single-stream flow of information, such as audio produced by a talk show host or news anchor, a video, movie, concert, or lecture, etc., each one transmitted as a single channel information stream – video or audio. The receptors of that flow of information are the individual’s ears and eyes, as personal digital devices such as smartphones are not engaged. This traditional mode of broadcasting exists today, just as it did decades ago, with only minor qualitative improvements of video/audio material. In other words, the powerful digital technologies of today, have not even scratched the surface of the traditional format of broadcasting and data delivery.

SONAD enables the delivery of information, contextualized multimedia content, and advertisements directly to consumers’ phones – concurrently, in real time, and in coordinated synchronization with broadcasts – without interrupting the flow of programs.

SONAD uses imperceptible sound codes to deliver information, digital content and advertisements to consumers that remains on their phones indefinitely. In contrast, traditional broadcast advertising is disruptive, annoys the consumers, and leaves with them no lasting impression or information.

Present-day advertisements delivered to consumers via internet or WiFi are as disruptive as traditional broadcast advertising. In the majority of cases, they are delivered without any synchronization with the activities of the consumers and without contextualization, and are negatively received by them.

In response to consumers’ displeasure, the marketplace has developed a myriad of software gadgets to block internet and WiFi-based advertisements. This trend results in generally unhappy consumers, as well as reduced returns on advertising investments.

SONAD enriches the format of traditional broadcast advertising, by augmenting it with unlimited internet-based information. All of this information, including text, video, graphics, and sound, is made available to the listener or viewer seamlessly, in real time and contextualized with any program – radio, TV, public address system, whether live or pre-recorded, as well as delivery via internet or print media.

SONAD’s technology will benefit both broadcasters and content producers, including advertisers, as well as public audiences and individual consumers.

On the receiving end, users equipped with mobile devices will be able to freely select the most desirable auxiliary content-related information from the multiple types and internet sources offered by the SONAD app, thus enriching their individual experience.

On the broadcaster/producer side, SONAD will provide a broad range of opportunities to discover the audience’s preferences in an entertaining and natural interactive environment. This will allow the producers to adjust their programs in response to the quantifiable preferences of listeners and viewers, making their job more satisfying and the business of their sponsors more cost-effective.

The audience, in turn, will experience broadcast programs not in a traditional, one-way format, but in an enriched, customizable environment. Every member of the audience will create his or her own unique, custom-made experience by choosing what he or she wants to see or read, from the menu of real-time contextualized channels displayed on the smartphone.

A Sona is a collection of multimedia items jointly covering any specific subject area. All of the multimedia items are packaged as a “digital capsule”, or Sona, and transmitted to consumers via any available broadcasting channel – radio, TV, Internet, arena, and printed media.

Each Sona can include an unlimited number of digital media files – video, audio, image, document, as well as links to websites and social media. The Sona’s content is conveniently placed on the phone’s screen allowing access to it via SONAD’s GUI.

The content encapsulated in a Sona can augment any broadcast:  a lecture, public arena event, trade show, conference, advertisement or promotional – anything intended for an individual or group of people using their devices as a depository of data. Learn More

Any registered user can create multiple fully functional Sonas by going to the “My SONA” page. You can start with creating your own Sona on your PC after creating “My Profile”. Learn More

An individual user (consumer) equipped with a mobile device will be able to receive content-related information from any broadcast or advertisement without interrupting the flow of the broadcast, by using the SONAD app. All of this information, including text, video, graphics, and sound, is made available to the user seamlessly, in real time and contextualized with any program – radio, TV, public address system, live or pre-recorded, or delivered via the internet.

SONAD technology makes advertising less disruptive to consumers and thus enhances their enjoyment of broadcasts, programs, and other materials transmitted over traditional audio tracks.

For a commercial user (broadcaster, producer, advertiser), the SONAD app will allow discovery of the audience’s preferences regarding programs or advertisements, the effectiveness of the delivery formats and content, as well as attribution. This data will allow producers to modify their programs in response to quantifiable preferences of listeners and viewers, making their business more enjoyable to consumers, and more cost-effective.

SONAD’s technology can be used at home and in the public domain: in education, business, entertainment, any social environment, transportation, and advertising.

Here are some specific areas:

1. Education and Science
a. Classrooms and lecture halls
b. Conferences

2. Business
a. Radio/TV
b. Malls and stores
c. Trade shows

3. Entertainment
a. Sport arenas
b. TV and radio shows
c. Live entertainment, concerts
d. Shows, movies, video
e. Podcasts

4. Social
a. Public gatherings
b. Political campaigns
c. Rallies

5. Transportation
6. Advertising
7. Health Care: hospitals/offices/walk-ins.

Yes! SONAD’s technology can be used to provide information in emergency situations for users in malls, stores, shopping plazas, or sporting events. In can also be used for information exchange at conferences and trade shows, and in lecture halls and classrooms, providing a non-interrupting flow of information, inaudibly but contextualized, and in real time.

Development is complete, and the iOS and Android versions of our free app are available in the Apple App and Google Play stores. We have started real-world testing: pilot test of the app in commercial markets and educational environments is currently underway at Stony Brook University’s College of Business.

Enhance traditional linear broadcast programming by super-charging it with contextualized multimedia content delivered to mobile devices.

  • Implement SONAD in a college environment. We offer an intriguing possibility for enriching the classroom professor-student information exchange, and campus life more broadly: tests and quizzes, contextualized lecture info support, information about campus, all delivered to phones in an interactive format.
  • Identify and conduct SONAD testing for major brands, products, and services by working with advertisers interested in exploring alternatives to traditional broadcast advertising and promotions.
  • Work with digital content providers – text, audio, video.

In two words: Non-interrupting Advertising. Deliver non-interrupting ads to willing, and thus satisfied consumers. Turning SONAD on, reviewing ads at their leisure, and sometimes clicking on the links and accepting the offers is their “payment” to advertisers, and to SONAD for that uninterrupted listening experience. This is our vision for the future of advertising; it will take time to be adopted broadly, as with all new technologies, but we believe in its importance and ultimate benefit.

Non-interrupting advertising will benefit the public, making advertisement cheaper and less intrusive; it will provide advertisements to WILLING customers looking at ads at their leisure, not while they enjoy programs. At the same time, producers and broadcasters will have more air time for content programming.

Using SONAD will reduce ad clutter and enable customers to focus on what truly matters to them: the program content and exclusive, personalized deals.

ZIPPR is a relaxing game to play as you are watching TV, listening to music, pondering over something or solving a problem,  or even exercising on a stationary bike. The gentle movements of your phone is all that’s needed to guide the zippr – eraser that will gracefully reveal the pictures stored in your phone’s camera collection, views of nature, abstract compositions, paintings or photos taken by your fellow ZiPPR users in their world travel. Learn More

Distribute multimedia content using sound and images. SOUNDLESSLY.

Or in more words: Deliver multimedia content to smartphones through any audio-based or print/screen-based broadcasting channel by using SONAD’s technology.