Shelter-At-Home to Generate New Consumer Patterns in Headphones and Home Audio
Parks Associates is predicting that headphones and earphones are likely to experience sales spikes with the world changing to Work at Home, Home Schooling, and Entertainment-In-Place. The company's research highlights the need for enhanced user experience to aid with device integration as audio market shifts from whole-room home theater systems to standalone connected devices. Podcast, music, and news consumption habits are also changing as a result of the current public health crisis with COVID-19.
Genelec Announces RAW Loudspeakers With Sustainability at the Heart
Genelec is now offering the option of a special RAW aluminum color finish, available on a selection of the most popular speakers in its Studio, AV and Home Audio ranges. The RAW versions use only recycled aluminum, require no painting and less finishing material than standard painted models – creating an even more environmentally friendly loudspeaker that allows the natural beauty of the enclosure’s raw material to shine through, giving each individual loudspeaker a unique look and feel.
Streaming Music Consumption Habits Change with Coronavirus Lockdown
Streaming subscriptions remain the number one growth driver in the global music market, accounting for more than 70% of spend on music last year. Yet, as measures to halt the spread of COVID-19 begin to reshape the lives of consumers, music streaming is experiencing a temporary drop in consumption. No listening in the car, no commuting to work, and the need to share the home spaces with family members, limits personal music listening opportunities, Futuresource Consulting's research finds.
Røde Microphones Expands Wireless Go Range with New Accessories and White Version
Australian pro audio powerhouse Røde Microphones announced an exciting expansion of its Wireless GO range of field production solutions for reporters, videographers and vloggers. The Wireless GO White, Lavalier GO White, together with the completely new Interview GO handheld accessory, and MagClip GO, are four new additions to the Wireless Go ecosystem, turning all types of field production and reporting more versatile, and unlocking a new world of creative possibilities in wireless audio.
Next-Generation SIMO Power Management IC from Maxim Integrated Extends Battery Life for Wearables and Hearables
Designers of compact consumer devices like hearables can now slash solution size by half and extend battery life by 20 percent with the MAX77654 single inductor, multiple output (SIMO) power management IC (PMIC) from Maxim Integrated Products. The breakthrough new SIMO technology replaces traditional power management architectures for the most demanding designs in wearables and personal audio devices, reducing BOM count by up to 40 percent, with 23 percent lower BOM cost compared to discrete solutions.
CEVA Announces SensPro High Performance Sensor Hub DSP Architecture for Smart Devices
CEVA announced a new high performance sensor hub DSP architecture designed to handle the broad range of sensor processing and sensor fusion workloads for contextually-aware devices. The new SensPro device family serves as a hub for processing and fusing of data from multiple sensors including camera, Radar, LiDAR, Time-of-Flight, microphones and inertial measurement units. This highly-configurable and self-contained architecture brings together scalar and parallel processing for floating point and integer data types, as well as deep learning training and inferencing.
Audio & Loudspeaker Technologies International (ALTI) Forced to Cancel ALTI-EXPO 2020
This announcement probably will not come as a surprise for anyone, but unfortunately the Audio & Loudspeaker Technologies International (ALTI) association was forced to confirm the cancelation of its ALTI Expo 2020 in Las Vegas, in light of the coronavirus pandemic evolution and the decision by AVIXA to also cancel the InfoComm 2020 show. Being an event with a very strong focus on education, ALTI will now focus on promoting the programed content through online events and publications, while other alternatives for networking are under consideration.
Alango ListenThrough Fosters Auditory Alertness While Using Headphones
Audio transparency is not as simple as it sounds. Slip on a pair of headphones or earbuds and you’ll shut yourself off from critical sounds. With its vast experience in DSP processing software, Alango Technologies developed ListenThrough, a “smart algorithm” for headphones/earphones that allows enjoyment of the music while staying alert to important environmental sounds. Instead of simply filtering selected frequencies, ListenThrough mixes environmental ambient sounds into the A2DP music stream, thus allowing the user to be aware of their surroundings even when using closed headphones and/or listening to loud music.
Vicoustic Turns 250 Tons of Recycled Plastic Into Acoustic Panels
Vicoustic turned 250 tons of plastic waste into acoustic solutions - the equivalent to over 22 Million 500ml PET bottles - since it started using VicPET Wool as raw material. With VicPET Wool as the new primary raw material, Vicoustic is changing the acoustic panels market. Consisting of mainly recycled plastic waste (65%), VicPET Wool is specifically designed to optimize acoustic performance while not adding glue, fabric or chemical fire retardant. Focal-Naim America is the distributor for Vicoustic products in the USA and Canada.
Shure New AONIC Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones And True Wireless Earphones Are Now Available
Following a preview at CES 2020, Shure now confirmed the launch of its latest AONIC 50 and AONIC 215 wireless products, both important achievements for the American brand. The new AONIC 50 Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones are nicely designed, high-quality headphones which offer up to 20 hours of battery life, signaling a strong entrance in the wireless ANC category. The AONIC 215 True Wireless Sound Isolating earphones employ the same Shure design for in-ear monitors, boasting eight hours of battery life.