From horns to hearables
The strange history of audio reproduction
About
In little more than a hundred years, we’ve gone from wax cylinders to streaming services, and brass horns to stereo earbuds. It’s been a journey that’s seen constant battles between manufacturers, recording studios and audiophiles, as they’ve grappled with technology, audio quality and convenience. In this talk, Nick looks at how our desire to listen to music has created a multi-million dollar industry which has created its own mythology about audio quality. It’s a history of surprising and often accidental development that has always been difficult to predict, but which is still trying to find new ways to make more money from our ears. Come and hear how we got to where we are today and where we may be going in the future.
This event will take place in the Queen's Building, Room QUE 101
Organised with CSES.
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Continuing Professional Development
This event can contribute towards your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours as part of the IET's CPD monitoring scheme.
04 Nov 2025
7:00pm - 8:30pm
Organiser
- Essex Local Network
Speakers
Nick Hunn
CTO - WiFore Consulting
Nick Hunn is a Fellow of the IET, and has been closely involved with short range wireless and communications, designing technology that helps to bring mobility to products, particularly in the areas of telematics, M2M, smart energy, IoT, LPWAN, wearables and mobile health. He invented the word “Hearables” and chaired the Bluetooth Hearing Aid working group, leading the development of Bluetooth LE Audio. He has worked with many companies developing wireless audio products.
Outside the audio industry, Nick has a wide ranging career across many technical sectors, having helped design laser gyroscopes, high power X-Ray generators, semiconductor processing equipment, robot vision systems, sperm and embryo freezers, smart meters, wireless technology, telematics systems, and also big data analytics.
He has published two editions of “An introduction to Bluetooth LE Audio” and is also the author of “The Essentials of Short Range Wireless” a book attempting to explain the application of wireless technologies to product developers. He regularly writes about technology on his blog at www.nickhunn.com. Nick can be contacted at nick@wifore.com.