Enhancia impresses at music start-up contest

Enhancia
Enhancia

Future tech: Neova MIDI ring by Enhancia

Record number of future tech companies battled it out at Midemlab 2018, attempting to win over judges and attract investment

The future looks bright for music technology, as this week saw the 11th annual music start-up competition take place in Cannes. Midemlab aims to shine a spotlight on innovative start-ups in the entertainment industry and help businesses gain investment for their products; a bit like the BBC TV show, Dragons’ Den.

This year, 20 finalists were selected from 234 submissions, which was a record number of entries, up 68% on 2017. Those final 20 were whittled down to four winners in four separate categories. One of those winners was French company Enhancia, the creators of a MIDI controller that is worn like a ring. Neova is aimed at keyboardists and allows the musician to control effects and play the keyboard simultaneously through hand gestures.

“Any gestures can freely be assigned to any parameter of the sound,” explains Enhancia’s Damien le Boulaire. “The ring connects to a hub that can sit on top of a keyboard and act as a MIDI controller. The wearable part uses 9 motion sensors which have accurate gesture recognition algorithms.”

Enhancia’s product is ready for production and can be pre-ordered at a discounted price of €245. At the time of writing, 381 devices had been sold, set for delivery in 2019.

The 2018 Midemlab winners:

Music creation & education category:
Lirica (UK)

Music discovery & distribution category: 
Laylo (USA)

Marketing & data/analytics category: 
Seated (USA)

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Experiential technologies – VR/AR, high resolution, IoT & hardware category: 
Enhancia (France)




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