Elk Introduces Aloha, Real-Time Remote Music Collaboration Interface and App

Elk, the Swedish company behind the Elk Audio Operating System for embedded audio products, now announced a new real-time remote music creation and performance platform with its Aloha by Elk service. The platform allows musicians to play, teach and collaborate together live and in sync from different locations. According to Elk, in order to avoid any latency, the new Aloha collaboration service runs on high-speed Internet and over 5G networks "transforming music creation and performance today with a clear path to the future."

CEVA, the leading licensor of wireless connectivity and smart sensing technologies, and Bragi GmbH, the hearables pioneer from Munich, Germany, announced a strategic collaboration to drive a new class of hearable devices where the user experience is customizable via the industry’s first hearable app store and the new Bragi 4 operating system. Target devices include headsets, hearing aids, True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds and a host of other smart audio devices for the consumer and the smart home.

A rapidly growing number of platforms and playback devices now support xHE-AAC decoding natively, which means interrupted or buffering audio and video streams are becoming a thing of the past. Consumer devices powered by the latest Android, Fire and Apple operating systems support the most efficient AAC codec with mandatory MPEG-D DRC loudness and dynamic range control metadata – delivering a seamless streaming experience on any device in any environment.

With the release of the Android P beta 3 preview, Fraunhofer IIS announces a new version of the popular FDK library which has been a part of Android since 2012. The FDK2 version will bring several new technologies to Android OEMs, service providers and developers, including xHE-AAC for video and music delivery down to 12kbit/s for stereo sound and MPEG-D DRC dynamic range control for better listening in noisy environments. An important update for a very fragmented platform.