The Future of Seamless Audio According to Qualcomm

An exclusive interview with Dino Bekis, Qualcomm's Vice President and General Manager, Wearables & Mixed Signal Solutions Business Unit, where he shares fascinating insights into the company's roadmap and future developments, leveraging the best of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in wireless earbuds and headphones into a seamless, high-quality audio experience. We also learn about Qualcomm's unique vision for its latest generation Snapdragon Sound platforms, and XPAN technology, allowing wireless hi-res audio without bandwidth constraints or compromising battery life.

Remora is the name of a new business venture and a new wireless audio hardware solution that will be officially launched at the 2024 High End show in Munich. Jumping ahead of technology availability in wireless headphones and earbuds, Remora PRO creates a Ultra-Wideband (UWB) transmitter and receiver solution for the highest wireless audio quality available. The USB-C dongle form factor also introduces the world's first Headphone 3.0 platform from Sonical.

Sonical, the company pioneering a fully integrated approach for the product development of headphones and hearables, with a real-time operating system that allows consumers to load their own apps, will partner with XMOS for its Headphone 3.0 demonstrations at CES 2024. The two companies will showcase a first joint development that will greatly enhance wireless audio quality with huge benefits to the feature set in Sonical's roadmap.

PSB Speakers, together with hearables start-up Sonical and audio codecs specialists MQA, announced a partnership that intends to define a new category of high-resolution audio headphones. The collaboration is aimed at creating true hifi headphones and smart earbuds, combining MQA's SCL6 high resolution wireless audio transmission and Sonical’s CosmOS platform. Planned for release under the PSB Speakers brand by Q1 2024, the resulting products will be the first headphones to feature Sonical’s ear computing platform, enabling a variety of apps and software upgrades.

Expanding the perspective on the evolution toward hearables, this article explores the current trends as well as the acoustical challenges and solutions for designing true wireless earphones. The article explains the enabling technologies currently converging as the TWS market continues to grow and use cases multiply, with more consumers using wireless earbuds for a diverse and varied set of applications, from listening to podcasts and audiobooks to Internet meetings and interacting with voice assistants. This article was originally published in audioXpress, April 2022.

Goertek has unveiled a new earbud reference design to help manufacturers looking to implement Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound technology speed their time to market. Powered by the Qualcomm QCC5141 Bluetooth Audio SoC, the Rox reference design is optimized for use in TWS earbuds and hearables and is designed to deliver high-resolution music, crystal-clear voice calls, and lag-free gaming — with superior connectivity and extended battery life.

Sony continued the High-Res Audio focus at IFA 2016, as shown at CES 2016 earlier this year. At the Berlin show, Sony introduced the new MDR-1000X Wireless Headphones with improved noise cancellation performance, while at the same time releasing its Ultimate 'Signature Series' Audio Range, combining reference MDR-Z1R headphones, NW-WM1Z and NW-WM1A Walkman players, and the TA-ZH1ES headphone amplifier. Unveiled for later release was Sony’s first hearable, the Xperia Ear.