Neutron scattering and ultrasonic methods have been used to study the lattice dynamics of two single crystals of Ni-Mn-In Heusler alloys close to Ni$_{50}$Mn$_{34}$In$_{16}$ magnetic superelastic composition. The paper reports the experimental determ
ination of the low-lying phonon dispersion curves and the elastic constants for this alloy system. We found that the frequencies of the TA$_{2}$ branch are relatively low and it exhibits a small dip anomaly at a wave number $xi_{0} approx 1/3$, which softens with decreasing temperature. Associated with the softening of this phonon, we also observed the softening of the shear elastic constant $C=(C_{11}-C_{12})/2$. Both temperature softenings are typical for bcc based solids which undergo martensitic transformations and reflect the dynamical instability of the cubic lattice against shearing of ${110}$ planes along $<1bar{1}0>$ directions. Additionally, we measured low-lying phonon dispersion branches and elastic constants in applied magnetic fields aimed to characterize the magnetoelastic coupling.
