From business advisory, events, and testbed to success
Omni Audio has utilized the diverse services offered to companies by Business Helsinki. How has the City of Helsinki assisted in the establishment of the company, product development, and the pursuit of business growth?
– I initially had no knowledge or skills in entrepreneurship. Business Helsinki has helped us from the very first steps and through various stages of our company’s development, says Dmitry Muromtsev, entrepreneur and one of the founders of Omni Audio Oy.
The company’s journey with Business Helsinki’s services has been multifaceted and educational. Here’s how it progressed:
1. Business advise
– The very first thing we did was contact Business Helsinki’s business advisory services. We learned how to establish a company and received support during the first months of our business. We attended many events organized by Business Helsinki for new entrepreneurs, and we still regularly participate in your events to learn new things. Business Helsinki offers a lot for companies at different stages of development. These events have been extremely useful and interesting for us. We are happy that you also have a lot of content and services in English.
2. Events
– Through Business Helsinki, we have also had the opportunity to present our company and activities at various events. It is really important to be able to talk about our company and network with potential future partners. At one event, we met Juho Kostiainen from Business Helsinki’s smart mobility testbed. He introduced us to Testbed Helsinki, which we decided to try out.
3. Experimentation in a real urban environment
We had the opportunity to test our solution in a real urban environment as part of Business Helsinki and Forum Virium Helsinki‘s smart mobility project, Mobility Lab Helsinki. We received help in finding a suitable testing location and partner, and we tested our product in the Kamppi shopping center.
Omni Audio’s innovative solution enhances the accessibility of public spaces with interactive immersive audio technology. This augmented audio solution allows people to hear and react to the objects around them. The user-friendly service operates through a smartphone browser. This enables visually impaired individuals to navigate places such as shopping centers, museums, hotels, or other venues. The functionality is ensured by advanced sensor technology and various soundscapes. The technology can e.g. detect the user’s location, distance from different objects, and direction. This information is integrated into the soundscape, including audio instructions, music, or symbolic sounds.
We invited experts from the Helsinki and Uusimaa Visually Impaired Association to test our service. We created a version of our product suitable for the experiment to be tested at street level and at the public transport. Our virtual product, suitable for shopping centers, allowed testers to explore the space before visiting and to navigate the area using sounds. After that, we plan to test the functionality of the product on-site, which requires, among other things, the setting up an indoor positioning system.
The experiment helped us reach both end-users and our customers, such as companies or cities that manage public spaces. The experiment helped us gain networks and contacts.
Thanks to the testbed, we understood even more strongly that our technology could be deeply personalized for different users, and we are now further developing our product to meet the needs of all possible end-users. Right now, we are focused on the visually impaired, but our product could also comprehensively improve accessibility, reduce various barriers and promote the well-being of everyone. For example, we could guide and direct people in new places.
Co-creation and common good
– I believe that the testbed activity is a great example of co-creation: we can learn about different usage environments and users, and the city and its residents can learn about the opportunities offered by new innovations, reflects Muromtsev, and continues:
– We have learned a lot from Business Helsinki about developing our solution, but also from a business perspective. I think our products could be used in all possible spaces: we can improve accessibility, but we can also comprehensively develop interactivity and the way spaces are used, as well as how satisfied people are with public spaces. We are constantly scaling our solution to meet different needs, and we already have options suitable for various customers. I truly believe in our success.
Photo: Omni Audio Oy
