A Mobile Shift at MWC 2019, Barcelona

MWC 2019 highlighted key areas where the audio industry should focus and from where it could gain it's most important benefits. A trade show vibrant in the presentation of audio technologies for voice interface solutions, smart and connected home and personal devices. I would never have dreamed that one day a trade show such as the Mobile World Congress would be part of my annual agenda. But now, traveling to Barcelona in February became an essential part of my duties for audioXpress every year.

Expanding on the first presentation of USound’s technology at Mobile World Congress a year ago, in 2018 STMicroelectronics hosted a working product demonstration of a in-earphone using only one single MEMS speaker driver per side, as well as a spatial audio demo using 14 drivers on over-ear headphones, proving the technology’s full potential. MEMS speakers developed by USound and manufactured by STMicroelectronics combine minuscule size, low profile, and high efficiency, enabling multiple wearable form factors.

STMicroelectronics and USound, an innovative and fast-growing audio company from Austria, have delivered the first silicon micro-speakers resulting from their technology collaboration, announced early 2017. The two companies confirmed that they are ready to enter volume production, engineering samples are now with lead customers, and trade demonstrations will take place during CES 2018, in Las Vegas.

Austrian manufacturer and supplier of MEMS-based audio systems, USound, has extended its management team with Thomas Gmeiner, who was appointed as USound Vice President Global Program Management and Business Development. A former Knowles and AKG executive with more than 20 years experience in the audio industry, Thomas Gmeiner reinforces USound in a critical moment for the company, about to release its patented thin-film piezo-electric MEMS micro-speaker technology.

STMicroelectronics and Austrian company USound GmbH announced their collaboration on the industrialization and production of the world's first miniature piezoelectric MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) actuators for smart audio systems in portable devices. The patented micro-speaker technology from USound aims to replace commonly used balanced-armature and electrodynamic receivers for handsets with a small piezo-MEMS actuator.