Modern technology has done wonders to shrink the world, from planes carrying passengers overseas to virtual conferencing solutions negating the need for in-person meetings. Operating in the latter space, Switzerland-based software developer SONIX gives gamers the ability to communicate in real time with low latency. The company announced Monday its expansion into the U.S. with a new Boston-area office.
SONIX’s technology was created to enable voice conversations between gamers that are as clear and fast as if users were playing together in the same room, according to the company. SONIX first debuted its tech in the U.S. esports space in January, providing its solution to a scholastic gaming event, the University of North Carolina’s Niner Esports Union LAN Party. The entire event was run on the SONIX platform. Now, the platform is furthering its stateside presence with an office in Arlington, Massachusetts.
The choice to expand into the Boston metro was largely fueled by the area’s robust network of engineering talent, its history of innovation in the audio industry and its growing esports scene, Nicolas Abelé, SONIX CEO and co-founder, said in a release. The company plans to expand its team and leverage the city’s gaming talent ahead of launching its commercial product this year, Abelé said.
Abelé has relocated to Boston and will oversee the new office.
“Boston is a growing area for gaming, with more and more talents trained in the domain,” Abelé, told Built In via email. “For example, just a couple of weeks ago, I attended the MIT Sloan Gaming Industry Conference. This drew out the best gaming people across the country and revealed the talent pool in the Boston area in the space.”
SONIX’s platform is built to allow esports teams to chat with one another without lagging responses from teammates. Rather than having to wait 0.5 seconds for a reply, SONIX works to reduce lag time by 5x over Discord, the top platform that’s typically used in gaming, according to the company.
Its platform uses solutions ranging from audio compression to network compensation and predictive data-loss reconstruction to remove as much lag time as possible from audio communications, according to Abelé.
SONIX partners with esports teams in the European Union as well as the United States, including Team LS.
“What creates the lag that disrupts people is not so much the network connection — especially when talking about cable or 5G —the lag comes from the communication software itself and on how it deals with voice compression and network jitter,” Abelé said. “For a connection between Boston and LA, the network lag with existing systems will be in the range of 10 to 20 milliseconds while the communication software lag is in the range of 200 milliseconds.”
While it was purpose built to remedy latency in the gaming sector, SONIX’s tech has a long list of potential use cases across an array of industries. It recently tested its solution during a live musical performance and recorded time lags as low as 18 milliseconds. Helping remote musicians stay in sync is one area SONIX foresees potential expansion, as well as podcasting and metaverse applications, such as augmented reality and virtual reality.
“In practice, any interaction through the internet — whether it is for entertainment, for work, for telemedicine — will benefit from SONIX, as it will provide the same experience as interacting in the same room, with the best-in-class audio quality,” Abelé said.
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