Irish company AntennaWare promoted audio applications using Ultra Wideband (UWB) at IBC 2023. Although the company was also showing solution for Bluetooth LE, UWB offers outstanding features for audio applications including low latency and data payload, resulting in sub 10ms end to end latency with Hi Res audio. However, problems occur with UWB when placed close to the body with audio connection becoming unstable. AntennaWare’s BodyWave antenna directly address these problems, unlocking the full potential of UWB for wireless audio applications such as headsets, wireless microphones and IEMs.
Many of today's wireless devices mostly suffer from poor latency performance and sub-optimal quality due to both the transport layer and audio compression algorithms used. Implementing UWB as a radio and AntennaWare’s UWB BodyWave antenna will directly result in a significant audio experience improvement. Skylark’s reference design is the world’s first UWB headset that is commercially available to OEM’s using this technology.
Skylark has been developing wireless audio products for 10 years. "We have witnessed the rise of TWS earphones based on Bluetooth technology and their acceptance by consumers. However, better audio experience has always been the pursuit of consumers and so we are always looking for better wireless audio transmission technology. The emergence of UWB audio technology meets the need for improved audio transmission technology and we continue to explore this technology and create better audio experiences for users," the company says.
At the International Broadcasting Convention, Skylark formalized its partnership with AntennaWare. "We believe that working together to develop this next-gen headset design incorporating BodyWave UWB antenna will ensure we are the first to offer OEMs a UWB headset to significantly improve the users’ wireless audio experience. UWB technology offers high bandwidth, low latency and anti-interference, providing better audio quality and reduced latency compared to Bluetooth, and Skylark is committed to developing innovative UWB audio products and bring better audio experiences to users."
AntennaWare CEO and Co-founder Dr Gareth Conway comments, “In Skylark we have found a partner whose aim it is to bring innovative audio products to the market. We are pleased they have chosen BodyWave antennas to solve the body blocking challenged experienced by UWB devices that have stunted its adoption up to now and that we can help them uncover the full potential of UWB for audio applications."
Skylark Audio was established in 2014, with headquarters and R&D facilities in Shenzhen, a factory at Dongguan plus logistics center in Hong Kong. With over 360 employees, specializing in microphones and musical instruments products, Skylark provides complete design and manufacturing services.
AntennaWare BodyWave UWB
Traditionally the high-end market for audio content acquisition for broadcasters has been the domain of expensive products. The complex requirements around quality, latency and robustness have required dedicated designs for the front-end RF, also creating a binary choice between cost and reliability/quality.
AntennaWare’s BodyWave antennas are designed to address two of the major causes of dropouts experienced by wireless wearables worn close to, or on, the body – body blocking and detuning. By generating waves that flow efficiently around the body, BodyWave antennas support a wireless communication link where others fail, resulting in an increase in NLoS link budget of between 10 and 20dB.
For the broadcast industry, this additional link budget means that wireless wearable devices commonly used for content acquisition can achieve sub 5ms latency, delivering a robust signal for Non-Line of Sight applications based on competitive BOMs, whilst achieving the technical performance normally associated with more expensive products.
The latest version of the company's BodyWave UWB antenna, introduced at IBC 2023, offers the same reliability as its current UWB antenna used in previous demonstrations, but meeting the requirements for smaller form factors.
This UWB solution for 6.5GHz/Channel 5 and 8GHz/Channel 9 is of particular interest for the broadcast audio sector as it offers the ~5Mbit/s required for Linear PCM 24-bit/96kHz audio with reliability and low latency.
Formed in 2020 by Gareth Conway and Matthew Magill as a spin-out from Queens University, Belfast, AntennaWare combines 20 years of cutting-edge academic research with industry expertise to produce an effective and powerful product - an antenna specifically designed for wireless wearables with increased radiation efficiency, increased detuning immunity, and unique BodyWave propagation.
The BodyWave range of antennas include DECT, Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband. DECT operates at 1.9GHz and Bluetooth operates in the unlicensed 2.4GHz band (both UHF ITU). UWB has a range of frequencies with BodyWave operating in Channel 5 (6.5GHz) and Channel 9 (8GHz).
www.antennaware.co.uk
