Gracenote-Powered Infotainment Systems Reach 100 Million Automobiles Globally

Gracenote, now a Nielsen company, confirmed that it is now featured in more than 100 million cars globally, powering intuitive, personalized and safer music experiences for drivers and passengers around the world. As an early pioneer in in-car infotainment, for nearly 15 years, Gracenote has delivered data and technology solutions for drivers and passengers to discover and connect with the music they love.

Texas Instruments (TI) introduced the first 2.1-MHz Class-D four-channel audio amplifier specifically designed for automotive applications. Supporting high-resolution 96-kHz digital input, the compact TAS6424-Q1 enables high-fidelity audio with low distortion in automotive infotainment systems. This impressive small footprint device combines low voltage and low noise, while providing lots of software settings, offering manufacturers more freedom to tailor their designs.

At the Mobile World Congress 2016, Harman International promoted their new connected car ecosystem with a new service provider program which allows automakers to provide a wide range of new vehicle-centric services over Harman’s new Service Delivery Platform. Harman also announced the launch of its new Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 3 portable Bluetooth speaker.

Voice Coil continues its look at microphones with this exciting feature on optic sound pickup technology. Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific) discusses how VocalZoom’s Laser Microphone is able to differentiate a speaker’s voice from extraneous background noise. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, December 2015.

Mentor Graphics Corporation announced the Mentor Automotive A2B Analyzer, the industry's first third-party development platform supporting the Automotive Audio Bus (A2B) technology developed by Analog Devices. Introduced in 2014, A2B digital audio bus technology enables distributing audio and control data together with clock and power over a single, unshielded twisted-pair wire.