The symphony of the capital.

The core idea of the new BVG Sound is inspired by Berlin. People from over 190 countries are at home here. The city stands for a diversity of lifestyles, cultures and gender identities. BVG connects this diversity, accompanies people through the colourful metropolis and offers them a stage. That’s why we recorded countless Berlin voices for the audio branding. Sung and spoken. Male, female and transgender.

The “Berlin Schnauze” has this very special charm. We have found an instrument that sounds as rough and warm as the Berlin tone of voice: the bass clarinet. No instrument can intonate the human voice and Berlin slang as well as it can.

The Berlin voices and the bass clarinet are the ingredients for the BVG Brand Music. We modestly call this catchy tune “The Symphony of the Capital”. And from this symphony, the sound logo was derived.

All of Berlin listens to Philippa. As the new voice of BVG, she now calls the shots in the capital’s public transport system. The Berlin dubbing artist and actress Philippa Jarke stood out from more than a thousand candidates in a multi-stage casting and convinces with her unique voice and as a strong personality. In over 100 studio hours, around 4,200 audio files were recorded for all stops and other announcements. Even a digital Philippa was co-developed – the first text-to-speech solution that masters the Berlin dialect!

With the aim of creating consistent standards for acoustic passenger information, signal tones were developed together with the new voice. In vehicles and on platforms, the tones were intensively tested and adjusted to work best for all passengers.

You can find more insights in the Birds’ View podcast. Project participants and the voice of Berlin have their say here. Listen now!

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