Market, Technology, and Trends for Soundbars in Perspective

Market research firm SAR Insight and Consulting updated its available analysis on one of the most important speaker form-factors currently in the audio and home entertainment industry. In the company's latest report on soundbars, the company details the technology trends, market growth and competitive analysis in the category. As manufacturers continue to expand the features, consumers also seem to have greater appreciation for soundbars.

Following Apple's announcement at WWDC21 that Siri is now open to third-party device makers, Sensory announced availability of its global “Hey Siri” wake word, complementing its range of custom voice AI solutions. With TrulyHandsfree “Hey Siri” wake word models available in different sizes, languages, and ports for all of today’s popular DSP platforms, Sensory is fast-tracking the development of third-party Siri devices, ranging from wearables to smart speakers and beyond.

Knowles Corporation announced the AISonic White Goods Standard Solution, a new, complete development solution that enables fast and easy voice integration for smart appliances. The development kit enables OEM and ODMs to build voice-activated control and far-field speech recognition capabilities into smart appliances, including refrigerators, ovens and microwaves, clothes washing and drying machines, vacuums, dishwashers, and more.

ArkX Laboratories has joined Amazon, Dolby, Facebook, and more than 30 leading technology and manufacturing companies as a member of the Voice Interoperability Initiative (VII) Group. Originally announced in 2019, the initiative's mission ensures voice-enabled products provide users with choice and flexibility through multiple, interoperable voice services. ArkX is a recognized supplier of production-ready, far-field voice capture solutions, all Amazon Voice Service (AVS) pre-qualified.

As part of its focus on voice convergence, in its April 2021 edition, audioXpress featured a contributed article by the founder and CEO of Fluent.ai, describing how increasing consumer demand for personalized experiences has sparked the creation of the company’s speaker ID technology, and exploring the challenges that this type of technology still faces. A valuable perspective from a company positioned right at the edge of voice recognition using AI and edge processing. This article was originally published in audioXpress, April 2021.

SoundHound announced the expansion of its Houndify Voice AI platform to 22 languages — covering a majority of the world's common languages. The expansion allows developers to add conversational intelligence to their products and services for users across the globe. The company also announced plans to add over 100 languages and variations as part of its commitment to provide the most comprehensive voice AI solution to brands and users everywhere.

Amazon introduced the next-generation of Echo Buds, featuring an all-new design, premium audio architecture for crisp, balanced sound, custom-designed Active Noise Cancellation technology, wireless charging capabilities, improved microphones for better call quality, and hands-free access to Alexa. Not many bought the first model anyway, so the announcement of the all-new second-generation Echo Buds is not that surprising, considering Amazon considers hardware as a pure extension of its services ecosystem.

As rumored, Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Nuance Communications, the speech-to-text and voice recognition pioneer, for US$19.7 billion - the second-largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history. Microsoft apparently recognized the value of Nuance's efforts in healthcare, financial services, telco, retail, travel, and government applications, and recent investments in conversational AI. How will Microsoft leverage the company's products and technologies is certainly more related to his efforts in those very same verticals and synergy with its Office and Business software suites, than any effort to revive Cortana.

Context-aware devices, such as the embedded smartphone keyboards, have been around for some time, though in a very limited form. By learning regularly used names, locations and phrases, they seem to know your next move, that is, predictive text. Similarly, but at a higher level, the next generation of smart audio devices will combine user-specific data, such as location, preferences and other device sensor data, including audio, to better serve the user.

It's been precisely a year since the global COVID-19 pandemic was declared and we all had to refrain from our normal routines and shelter in place, being restricted to working from home until now. At least for the audioXpress team. A year past, and we are glad to be able to signal that during that year we've kept our publications and even grown our online audiences and achieved extremely positive results. Mainly, because we continued to offer the best content for anyone interested in following the audio industry, audio product development, audio innovations, and DIY audio.