Celebrating 100 years of the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) Berlin (International Radio Exhibition Berlin), this vibrant trade show has evolved over decades into the world’s largest appliances and consumer electronics marketplace. And I say marketplace because IFA was always about selling to anyone who wanted to buy, be it qualified channel partners and retailers or the enthusiast who showed up typically during the weekend with family. Not surprisingly, many specialized retailers exhibit at IFA for that purpose and because they can increasingly host many of the brands that decide not to exhibit on their own.
From the 1924 event’s origins in Radio and Television (in our article about IFA 2017 we explored that history), IFA should have evolved into the most important entertainment technology showcase in the world, including audio. Unfortunately, cutting-edge electronics left for Japan (first) and later to China, and those trade shows migrated elsewhere, leaving a few proud German manufacturers to lead the fair. In the past two decades, IFA has evolved to become an important trade show focused essentially on the German-speaking markets, which continue to be Europe’s largest - and that is why until very recently American companies kept exhibiting every year. Once attracting nearly 250,000 visitors, with the majority of trade visitors coming from outside Germany, every square foot of the Berlin Messe was used by exhibitors, and many other event buildings around the city were used for other events.
While IFA was still growing before the pandemic, things were also starting to change fast, with appliances expanding to become the dominant business, and audio reduced to one hall. Many companies simply opted to promote events in Berlin, and not have a booth, or they would share a booth with a local agent or reseller. Until things changed again, and personal and wireless audio exploded in the consumer space, and true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds became the fastest growing and largest product category in audio. And obviously, IFA is also an important show for the mobile industry (all the smartphone brands were there, including Google), with two halls just selling iPhone and Apple accessories (the reason why Apple doesn’t need to ever exhibit).
IFA also says the halls were fully booked (not exactly, as I could attest) with strong growth in application areas such as Smart Home, Communication & Connectivity, Computing & Gaming, Digital Health and Wellness, and even mobility products. More than 200 start-ups had the opportunity to exhibit in the innovation hub IFA NEXT. There we found many start-ups from South Korea, which was this year’s IFA NEXT Innovation Partner Country. That’s also where I found a very interesting number of companies working on translation devices and services, leveraging the latest AI engines and hardware innovations.
It’s important to remember that IFA in Berlin is probably the last annual event to introduce new consumer electronics products in time for the end of the year holidays. The most important season of the year for sales. So, the “retail” and “resellers” perspective is still alive and well, and that is what keeps a large number of consumer electronics and home appliances companies attending, and a vibrant showcase of "Innovation for All." IFA 2024 hosted more than 1,800 exhibitors across its floorspace in all the halls of the Messe Berlin fairgrounds. The largest exhibitors were once again Samsung and LG Electronics, plus the TV brands TCL and Hisense, and on the appliances side - Bosch, Siemens, Miele, Liebherr, CandyHoover, and SharkNinja. To put it in perspective, all the audio companies exhibiting took more or less the same show space as LG...
Signaling the importance of the German industry and many of its prestigious brands, from Bosch to Siemens, the show was officially opened by the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Olaf Scholz. Appropriately, the Innovation Stage received a compelling keynote from MediaMarktSaturn’s CEO, Karsten Wildberger (the largest electronics retailer in Europe), who explored the future of AI, connectivity, gaming, and content creation.
IFA is also a five-day show, with very different dynamics throughout. The two first days are the strongest for resellers and B2B, being also the days for media to report on what’s at the show. This is followed by a Sunday where brands promote all sorts of initiatives to entertain the crowds from across Germany (but mostly locals from Berlin) that visit the show every year. And the Monday and Tuesday, which are again purely trading days, are used by many smart business people to find the latest and cheapest deals.
As it celebrates 100 years, IFA is also following on the path of the CTA and the CES show and consolidating its B2B activities. At the Berlin Messe, hundreds of companies from China could meet brands and manufacturers from all over Europe and other parts of the world. That was visible in the direct presence of factories that, apart from showcasing they own branded products, are essentially there to sell parts, accessories, or manufacturing (and increasingly design) services to the other exhibitors or visiting professionals. At times, during the first two days, I found myself surrounded by technology suppliers, well-known audio companies, and even emerging start-ups still in the early stages, all gathered around the few audio exhibitors. In contrast, in some well-organized areas of the show, such as the mobile accessories, there was a B2B hub with meeting desks and even small tabletop-type exhibits precisely for this.
This year, IFA promoted the Global Trades area once again in a separate location - Station Berlin - where audio was supposed to be one of the application areas. This is an old event complex with a beautiful industrial architecture, which would be great if it wasn’t for the fact that it was used mainly to locate hundreds of companies from China without any clear criteria. I don’t think IFA should keep doing this. There is plenty of space left at Messe Berlin and creating a physical separation between traders, manufacturers, ODMs, and technology/service suppliers makes no sense and doesn’t help business. If they want to create a separate badge for access, that’s fine. Sending hundreds of companies to a separate location - far away - doesn’t make any sense, and frankly I found it insulting to those who participated. This is clearly a problem that trade show organizers need to learn how to handle (and CTA, you know you have to do something too). And where are the trade associations that should be leading these initiatives?
In fact, while IFA was celebrating its 100th anniversary - revisiting its origins in the history or radio, and later TVs - the “Reseller Park” in Hall 25 was celebrating its 25th anniversary. This was once again one of the most interesting and vibrant environments of the show, right next to the IFA Next hall. But it’s too hard to tell if all the companies exhibiting in these spaces, and the companies just visiting, clearly understand their role in this industry - or if they even have the right strategy to approach it! One can find the typical company that provides mobile parts and accessories with the inevitable “glass-replacement” kits, but also suppliers of electronic components for repairs, and well-identified factories accepting low-volume orders from pre-existing catalogs or “stick your own brand” strategies.
What still makes IFA a must-attend show, is precisely the variety of small brands and a lot of technology vendors that visit and exhibit. For five days, IFA is in fact the world’s largest consumer tech space, showcasing the cheapest, most popular, and largest in volume product categories in consumer electronics - which you can hardly see at CES, and are a confusing bazaar at the Hong Kong shows. IFA truly provides a platform for brands to connect with retailers, media, and consumers, as the organizers state.
Meanwhile, I received the official report from the organizers, which confirms that IFA 100 attracted more than 215,000 visitors from 138 countries, including more than 133,000 trade visitors. Sounds about right, given the hotel occupancy and how busy it was in Berlin during all five days. This also means that visitor numbers were up 18% over last year, and IFA reports an increment in visitors, particularly from the United States, Italy, France, Poland, Korea, and the United Kingdom. Media attendance was up 43% because the number of “tech bloggers” and “influencers” grew 300%. Many of these “influencers” are now escorted by their agents, who negotiate the terms for an appearance in a TikTok post. Hilarious.
The Auracast Experience
Since I don’t have the space for more, I will focus here on the Auracast Experience promoted at IFA by the Bluetooth SIG. The third time I participated in one of these experiences, this one was the best, mainly because it was promoted using only products that are commercially available. For the tour, we used Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 earbuds instead of the previous Qualcomm reference designs. This is an excellent way for brands to showcase the possibilities of their newly introduced LE Audio- and Auracast-enabled products.
The Auracast Experience at IFA was also conveniently located at the Messe Berlin Funkturm Lounge, just below the historic radio tower. A quiet and “interference free” environment in the middle of a busy show. There, among several surprising new products, was a pair of Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds with LE Audio and Auracast support. This means that - more than a year after launch - one of the top selling TWS products on the market globally will soon receive an update. This is yet to be confirmed by Sony, which makes it even more intriguing. Another surprising and interesting product on display was the nwm ONE Open-Ear headphones, a minimalistic design from NTT Sonority, the audio engineering arm of Japan’s largest telecommunications company. Another interesting aspect was that the tour guides in this Auracast Experience were wearing a GN ReSound Micro Mic, which was another way to showcase the possibilities of an Auracast transmitter for these guided applications.
After the tour, which was excellent and demonstrated many of the products available, I had an opportunity to chat with Chuck Sabin (Market Development, Marketing, etc.), and Ken Kolderup (CMO) from the Bluetooth SIG, to discuss the recent Bluetooth 6.0 update, which introduces Bluetooth Channel Sounding.
One of the first things we discussed was the realization that this update introduces Bluetooth 6.0. It’s an important number to reflect a new specification that might have important implications that are not yet evident to all (certainly not to the many engineers and product managers I met at IFA this year and which had no time to fully reflect on the impact of the update). One immediate implication though is the realization that in Shenzhen and all over China, factories will be rushing to change the packaging and promotional materials to replace Bluetooth 5.4 with Bluetooth 6.0. Because “everyone knows that 6.0 is better than 5.4!” :)
For now, Bluetooth 6.0 serves to promote the new Bluetooth Channel Sounding. This is a new secure, fine-ranging feature that promises to enhance the convenience, safety, and security of Bluetooth-connected devices. It will enable true distance awareness in billions of everyday devices and open countless possibilities for developers and users alike. In my conversation with the Bluetooth SIG people, we discussed how, apart from Find My and known positioning applications, this will also benefit audio applications. Both Chuck Sabin and Ken Kolderup seemed to agree with me that there are exciting possibilities of true distance awareness, including for Auracast applications, as a way to easily condition and advertise the presence of a broadcast source, as well as the direction of a transmitter. There are hurdles to that, such as the need to have bidirectional communication, but don’t be surprised if a one-way protocol will be eventually added to the spec.
We also discussed some of the active specification development projects that are in progress, and we specifically discussed the High Data Throughput projects. Ken Kolderup confirms that there is a firm commitment from many of the active SIG members to make this part of Bluetooth by the end of 2025, or even earlier. Following the appearance of multiple proprietary solutions to improve the data rate for high-quality audio applications, there is now a consensus that High Data Throughput should be part of the specification. LE Audio already resulted from such efforts, when LE 2M PHY doubled the data rate that could be achieved between Bluetooth LE devices from the original LE 1M PHY. Now, even greater performance is being targeted to support streaming of even larger media. The High Data Throughput project will specify a higher data rate Bluetooth LE PHY intended to support up to 8Mbps or even 12Mbps.
Other ongoing projects with wide support from Bluetooth SIG members include expanding LE Audio to support spatial audio, interoperable, multichannel surround sound systems, and define an ultra-low latency (ULL) interface to make Bluetooth gaming controllers as responsive as those using USB-wired or proprietary wireless communications.
On the Auracast front, updates are being added to complete the ecosystem - as requirements are being identified from actual development efforts. The Bluetooth SIG is currently working on ways to deploy and coordinate multiple Auracast transmitters to extend (and condition) coverage in large public environments; using multiple Auracast transmitters to support broadcasts with more audio streams than a single transmitter can handle (e.g., multi-language broadcasts); and a standardized method of discovering Auracast broadcasts without the need of a smartphone - something that all manufacturers are already considering and testing - although there are many challenges to overcome, particularly in terms of user interface.
An example of an alternative Auracast, UI was available at IFA 2024 and was one of the reasons why I signed up for the Auracast tour, and provided me with the chance to try out the new JBL Tour PRO 3 true wireless earbuds. Harman was in fact a big part of the updated Auracast Experience at IFA 2024, with all its recent wireless Bluetooth speakers now being used to demonstrate the impact of a party - all speakers playing the same music stream.
The new JBL Tour PRO 3 design not only is a standout example of dual drivers per earbud, spatial audio with head tracking, adaptive noise cancellation, and AI-based voice call processing, it also creates additional appeal through its use of the latest possibilities of LE Audio and Auracast. In particular, the Smart Charging Case, which can be used as a transmitter to the true wireless earbuds and also features an advanced tactile color display to redefine the user experience. I tried it and was certainly fascinated by the depth of the existing menus and settings, but was also disappointed with the touchscreen and how difficult it was to navigate and select features - but it could also have been that particular one that had been used for too many demos that day. I’m certain we will see more displays in charging cases (Harman is going all in) but maybe it’s better to grab ideas from those cheap smart watches, and less from FM radios.
This is a clear sign of how exciting CES 2025 promises to be, with all the new LE Audio and Auracast enabled products already available, and many new announcements expected, while there are also many interesting things on the way with Ultra-Wideband (UWB) and even surprises to be expected with AirPlay support for Spatial Audio.
All the companies I talked to at IFA 2024, including engineering and development providers, such as StreamUnlimited and Frontier Smart Technologies, were excited to showcase development platforms that are ready to explore the latest Bluetooth specifications and in particular Auracast. While the big Bluetooth chip suppliers are all focused on meeting the huge demand for wireless earbuds and the more immediate use cases in headphones and even gaming controllers, there is an opportunity to explore in speaker applications. And StreamUnlimited was already doing that, working on ways to make Auracast transmitter discovery easier and even enabling left and right true wireless channels to feed left/right or rear left/rear right surround channels for home cinema setups. An obvious application that is surprisingly simple and should appeal to the speaker industry, particularly manufacturers of soundbars and 2.1 home cinema systems that can now be expanded to 4.1. This includes also sharing audio in entertainment systems to speaker zones and headphones in the rear seat of a car...
I ended my visit to the audio pavilion at IFA 2024 with an extended conversation with Bragi and its CEO and founder Nikolaj Hviid. At IFA 2024, Bragi presented multiple new features and apps for its AI headphones platform, and the company announced a new partnership for turn-key licensable audio solutions with Bose, simplifying the process of building high-quality audio products for brands worldwide.
In a conversation with David Casey (Senior Director) and Vlad Grodzinskiy (Senior Product Manager), both part of the Technology Strategy & Licensing team, we learned how Bose is licensing its acclaimed audio technologies through Bragi's platform, enabling the seamless integration of Bose's Active Noise Cancellation, Immersive Audio, and AI Voice technologies. Both the Bragi and Bose teams hardly had any time to stop during the first two days of the show. Nikolaj Hviid confirmed that IFA 2024 was an absolute success for his company, with a great number of companies using the show to engage in discussions about upcoming product designs. As the silicon that powers headphones and earbuds is improving to meet the requirements of AI applications, now in great demand, Bragi’s strategy is clearly gaining momentum. And the partnership with Bose helps to enable further opportunities. And of course, Bragi also announced a new strategic partnership with Qualcomm, which will only help expand its proposition to more brands.
Most of the audio companies I talked to said they would be back in Berlin in 2025. Some will need to rethink their location, many need to have a booth. IFA 2025 takes place September 5-9. aX
This article was originally published in The Audio Voice newsletter, (#484), September 12, 2024.
