R&D Stories: The Evolution of True Wireless Stereo

Adding a valuable perspective to the topic of True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds and hearables development, Jean-Marc Luneau (7 Sensing Software) details meaningful new features and improvements for brands to differentiate their products and make them stand out in today’s crowded market. This article was originally published in audioXpress April 2021.

Good news for designers of Bluetooth earbuds and hearables relying on Qualcomm’s audio SoCs and looking for differentiating features. Their products can now offer improved voice clarity in noisy or windy environments using Alango’s OnlyVoice advanced technology for true wireless earbuds and high-performance headsets. Also available on QCC5141 is VoiceFirst, which improves speech intelligibility in movies through de-emphasis of background sounds and music.

The Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT), the central research and development institute of the public broadcasters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and DSPECIALISTS GmbH, a company specialized in the development and distribution of products for digital audio signal processing and measurement technology, have established a cooperation agreement focused on high-quality loudness control. DSPECIALISTS already ported the IRT loudness adjustment algorithm to its HARVEY signal processing platform.

3PASS flex is HEAD acoustics new simulation system for measuring speech quality performance in the presence of background noise. It is particularly suited for testing multi-microphone systems, microphone arrays or beamforming microphones in real world conditions where multi-point noise simulation with flexible microphone and loudspeaker arrays is required. 3PASS flex reproduces any previously recorded sound field at distinct microphone positions, representative of typical use cases.