All items in category Blogs
Technical, Scientific, and Engineering Awards: A Recognition to the Audio Industry
by Joao Martins

Technical, Scientific, and Engineering Awards: A Recognition to the Audio Industry

I would like to thank the Academy! It's award season and following the CES and TEC Awards, It's time to highlight all the well-deserved scientific, technical and engineering Emmy's, Grammy's and Oscars awarded to the audio industry. This article was originally published for The Audio Voice newsletter #313, distributed February 4, 2021.
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Best Kept Secrets: The Continuous Search for Reference Speakers
by Joao Martins

Best Kept Secrets: The Continuous Search for Reference Speakers

I frequently learn about new products from brands large and small, which sometimes remain unnoticed for multiple reasons (and I don't mean by the press) regardless of how innovative they are. That's a topic in itself to be addressed in a separate editorial one of these days... This week, I spent some time looking at a few speakers that I think deserve a spotlight. Please note that I have not heard those speakers. I just think they are interesting products that deserve a mention.
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Situational Loudspeakers: Different Ways of Thinking About Speaker Design
by Joao Martins

Situational Loudspeakers: Different Ways of Thinking About Speaker Design

One of the most intriguing concepts in speaker design is the notion that people have to sit in a very limited sweet spot - a carefully triangulated arrangement of a center line between our ears and the point source in a pair of speakers. For many music and audio enthusiasts, there's no other way - and preferably in a carefully treated listening environment designed for musical enjoyment. But what the market once dubbed as "living room stereo" is something that the vast majority of people completely ignore. Why would you even have to sit still to listen to music?
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Avid Pro Tools Carbon Audio Interface Is a Dead End
by Joao Martins

Avid Pro Tools Carbon Audio Interface Is a Dead End

With competition in the studio recording and particularly in the music production market segments heating up while computer interfaces and network technologies continue to evolve at a fast pace, Avid finds itself increasingly in a hot spot. The industry standard Pro Tools software is facing aggressive competition from all directions, while Avid's hardware days are now long gone. The company needed to do something for the project/small studio market, which they are loosing fast, and so they launched Pro Tools Carbon, a new audio interface.
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The First Smart Speaker from Apple: A Strong Design and How It Is Perceived
by Joao Martins

The First Smart Speaker from Apple: A Strong Design and How It Is Perceived

For this edition of The Audio Voice, I intended to focus a bit more on the latest developments in the fascinating world of sensors and how it impacts product development and design in all applications areas, particularly in consumer electronics, automotive, and health applications. After writing previously about Apple - the sensors on the Apple Watch and the surprising firmware updates for the AirPod Pro earbuds - I really didn't want to go back to Apple. But as always, Apple has a way of surprising us exactly when we least expected, and the company made another important audio announcement.
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Follow the Leader, Leader, Leader... Spatial Audio? What Will They Come Up With Next?
by Joao Martins

Follow the Leader, Leader, Leader... Spatial Audio? What Will They Come Up With Next?

As it was announced during Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference back in June 2020, among all the spectacular updates to all the company's operating systems (iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, and tvOS 14), Apple discussed a new firmware update that would add spatial audio support for the company's AirPods Pro. Well, a few days ago, Apple did release the promised firmware update and suddenly, the spatial audio support in the AirPods Pro was a reality. And what an update! As everyone realized soon enough, the results are simply spectacular and very noticeable while watching movies with good soundtracks.
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Actively Smart True Wireless Earbuds: How to Augment Your Hearing
by Joao Martins

Actively Smart True Wireless Earbuds: How to Augment Your Hearing

IFA 2020, in Berlin, Germany, was "the first major global fair for consumer and home electronics" to physically take place since the pandemic. This limited push to promote a trade show again, lead some major consumer electronics companies and brands to converge their announcements in the week from September 1-5, with showcases streamed to the world live from the Berlin exhibition grounds. Some announcements were relevant to the audio industry and included the Qualcomm press conference, which used the opportunity to launch its latest Adaptive ANC platform, an important step towards smart true wireless earbuds.
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New Digital Behaviors: A New Calendar for the Audio Industry
by Joao Martins

New Digital Behaviors: A New Calendar for the Audio Industry

With the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic effects, in the same way as many retailers' business and entire distribution models have been disrupted, consumer behavior changes are also affecting the manufacturers' calendars in general. The industry is no longer depending on massive industry events that in the past have determined important product launch and promotion cycles.
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The Intelligent Microphone: The Next Generation of MEMS Microphone Technology
by Mike Klasco

The Intelligent Microphone: The Next Generation of MEMS Microphone Technology

At the end of July 2020, audioXpress ran a product release on Vesper's VM3011 intelligent digital micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) microphone. Its claim to fame is a power saving architecture that enables battery standby life that otherwise would be unattainable without the "smarts." There are another half-dozen developers working on integrating all sorts of capabilities within the MEMS mic package. This article, originally published in The Audio Voice newsletter, discusses those developments.
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Sonos Settles Another Patent Infringement Case and Agrees on Multi-Year Licensing Deal with Lenbrook
by Joao Martins

Sonos Settles Another Patent Infringement Case and Agrees on Multi-Year Licensing Deal with Lenbrook

Sonos and Lenbrook Industries reached a settlement in Sonos’ patent infringement lawsuit against Lenbrook regarding the Bluesound wireless audio systems. Undisclosed terms include a multi-year licensing deal associated with all BluOS enabled solutions worldwide. This announcement comes after a patent infringement deal was also settled with Sound United regarding the Denon HEOS solutions. Sonos continues to fight in court against Google to protect its wireless audio patents.
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