Our Story

The Sound Scouts mission began with the aim of helping to eliminate undetected hearing loss in children. This expanded to provide an accessible hearing test solution for school aged children and adults across Australia & around the world.

Recognizing that mobile game technology could hold the key to creating this, Sound Scouts partnered with the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL), the research arm of Hearing Australia. Combining technology with science allowed Sound Scouts to create a solution that provides parents, schools & healthcare professionals with direct access to an innovative and clinically validated hearing check.

“The hearing health-care system has been missing a low-cost, easily administered, reliable hearing test that can be widely applied to children at school entry so that no child has to go through school at a disadvantage because of unmanaged hearing loss.” — Professor Harvey Dillon

Since inception Sound Scouts has been honored with multiple national and international awards celebrating both our innovative approach to hearing screening and our creative use of technology.

Sound Scouts is a registered class IIa medical device (ARTG Identifier: 501132).

In 2018 Sound Scouts signed an agreement with the Federal Department of Health that saw the Service offered for 4.5 years without charge. Thousands of Australian schoolchildren have received access to a hearing check with many issues identified and treated.

Hon Ken Wyatt MP, Carolyn Mee (Sound Scouts CEO & Founder), Trent Zimmerman MP & Cuauh Moreno (Sound Scouts CTO) at the announcement of the Sound Scouts service agreement on November 16th, 2018.

RECOGNITION

Awards & Recognition

2025

2020

2019

2018

2017

Data Innovation Awards: Winner Best Start Up

2017

2016

2015

2014

THE PEOPLE BEHIND SOUND SCOUTS

Our team

Carolyn Mee

Founder & CEO

Carolyn specializes in serious game and app development with a focus on health. Carolyn set her sights on developing a game to improve children's hearing screening and in 2011, collaborating with the National Acoustic Laboratories, the research arm of Hearing Australia, Sound Scouts was created. In 2015 Carolyn was honored to receive a NSW Medical Devices Fund Grant for $1.1million enabling the continued development and commercialisation of Sound Scouts.

Professor Harvey Dillon

Chief Scientist

Professor Dillon is best known for research into hearing aids and in recent years has been active in researching auditory processing disorders in children and electrophysiological assessment techniques for infants. Amongst his over 200 publications is a comprehensive text on hearing aids that is used widely throughout the world.

Cuauhtemoc Moreno

Chief Technical Officer

Cuauh Moreno is a Creative Coder and Game Designer with 15+ yrs experience across web, mobile and virtual reality. From popular browser games, to physical installations involving full-body motion; from educational ebooks, to multi-platform apps. At Sound Scouts, Cuauh oversees, plans and manages the digital products and requirements of the company, including a distributed back-end, multi-platform app. Cuauh is skilled in the art of interpreting complex audio science into a playable format. He has designed and developed other award winning projects such as: SimuSurg (winner of the Australasian Serious Game Challenge, 2018); and Amberial.

Nakhorn Radsavanh

Senior Developer / Frontend Lead

Nakhorn Radsavanh is a multi-disciplinary programmer / game developer with a demonstrated history of working in the software industry. Skilled in Game Design, C#, Web development, and audio design Nathan says he has wanted to make games since he was 5! Throughout his coding career he has filled a variety of roles ranging from Games Designer, Audio Engineer, Lead Systems Programmer and Backend Developer. Nathan has a passion for all things gaming, music and sound which has led him to Sound Scouts where he gets to utilize his skillset in games development and audio to help build products that are not only fun but also life changing.

Lisa Teager

Customer & Partnerships Manager

As Customer & Partnerships Manager, Lisa brings an abundance of enthusiasm, passion and experience to the role, having spent over a decade in the hearing industry. Dedicated to making Sound Scouts accessible to all, Lisa uses her well honed relationship skills to seek out, instigate and embed partnerships in the health, education, and community sectors.

Simon Skidmore

Sales Lead

A business leader with a passion for inspiring ideas that change behavior and make a positive difference. 20+ years marketing communications experience across all forms of content, advertising, digital media, social, shopper, experiential and sponsorship.

OUR COLLABORATORS

Sound Scouts research is supported by Macquarie University, Sydney.

Macquarie University's Department of Linguistics bring world-leading expertise in hearing science and auditory research. Their collaboration with Sound Scouts strengthens the evidence base underpinning the hearing assessment tools.

Visit Macquarie University

Sound Scouts was built in collaboration with the National Acoustic Laboratories.

Combining technology with science, Sound Scouts delivers a fun, clinically validated hearing check. Chief Scientist Prof. Harvey Dillon ensured the app measures the key metrics of functional hearing, including performance in noisy classroom environments.

Visit National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL)

Sound Scouts is recommended by Hearing Australia.

Thanks to previous funding from the Department of Health, with support from Hearing Australia, Sound Scouts delivered hearing tests to children across Australia. That government-funded period has since ended; contact us for current pricing and school program options.

Visit Hearing Australia