eBilet ticket scanner sound wins in Hamburg: three notes instead of a beep

A ticket scanner usually makes one short beep. It tells you the device has read your ticket, and nothing else. Rafał Konieczny, a music producer and founder of the agency Soundize, decided that moment could sound different.

The result is Sonic Gateway, a sound system for the ticket scanners of eBilet, the Polish ticketing platform. The name refers to a sonic gate, the point where waiting ends and the event begins.

Three notes instead of one beep

The system is built on a three-note motif based on the rhythm of the syllables „e-Bi-let”. According to the project entry on the awards site, the notes are G, C and D, at a tempo of 126 beats per minute. The motif has two layers: an electronic scanner signal and a more musical version built on humming, voice-like tones.

The design uses what is known as the cocktail party effect, the ear’s ability to pick out a familiar signal in a noisy room. At a concert or a football match, that is what decides whether a sound reaches people at all.

„I wanted this sound to work as a kind of psychological anchor. If you hear it again and again at different events, the sound itself can start to bring back the memory of a concert,” says Rafał Konieczny.

The motif is not limited to scanners. The same signal is meant to appear in the app, in radio ads and on social media.

Sound as part of the brand, not an add-on to the ad

Audio branding usually stops at a jingle at the end of a commercial. Here the sound sits at a point where the customer actually meets the brand, in the same way companies rework a visual identity or build a campaign around how a product sounds.

„Audio branding can be much more than a sound at the end of an ad. We wanted to create a solution that becomes part of the real fan experience,” said Mateusz Zawada of eBilet, quoted in the company’s announcement.

eBilet is part of Allegro Group, the largest e-commerce company in Poland, which has been building its own advertising business for several years and testing new sales channels.

The award

The International Sound Awards are run from Hamburg and are devoted to sound design. Each entry is assessed by at least four jurors and the result is based on median scores. This year’s winners were announced on 18 September.

„This award matters to me because it shows that sound design can go beyond music and advertising,” Konieczny says. „You can avoid an image by looking away. Sound reaches you even when you are not looking at its source.”