The Arendi Auracast TV Streamer was designed to explore the possibilities of Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast, in this case directly addressing one of the most common and useful cases, for wireless audio sharing. Although called a "TV streamer" - because connecting it to the TV will be the most common use case - the new Arendi device provides high quality streamed audio from any audio system, such as a HiFi stereo, personal computer, or similar device. From those sources, it makes the audio available wirelessly to any Bluetooth LE Audio / Auracast enabled headset, speakers or hearing aids, with support for True Wireless Stereo (TWS). With LE Audio, creating a common point-to-point connection using the robust new LE Audio codec, and as Auracast, to enable multiple devices at the same time to receive the streamed audio (broadcast).
The Arendi design delivers up to +20dBm RF output power for robust link quality and long range streaming with the supported Bluetooth LE Audio profiles and Auracast. Connection to the source is made through TOSLINK (optical) and analog audio inputs. HAP (Hearing Access Profile) and Bluetooth Basic Audio Profile (BAP) support enables support for multiple types of hearing aids with configurable LC3 codec support for 48/24/16kHz. For that use case, the Arendi Auracast TV Streamer also supports proximity pairing, making the experience for hearing aid users much simpler.
Bluetooth LE Audio significantly reduces power consumption compared to Classic Bluetooth - extending battery life or allowing the use of smaller batteries for the same run time. Nordic's nRF5340 SoC integrates powerful dual Arm Cortex-M33 processors, a high performance application processor capable of DSP and Floating Point (FP) with 1MB Flash and 512KB RAM, and a fully programmable, ultra low power network processor with 256 KB Flash and 64 KB RAM. The dedicated application processor provides ample computational resources to run the Arendi Auracast TV Streamer’s audio codec - ensuring clear sound and stable transmission.
The inclusion of Nordic’s nRF21540 FEM in Arendi's TV streamer allows for higher transmission power (+20dBm instead of +3dBm for the nRF5340 SoC), resulting in longer range and more reliable transmission between the TV and the receiving device, even when the user, for example a wearer of hearing aids, turns their head away from the audio source.
"Current TV streamers use proprietary RF links to respect the limited energy of a hearing aid battery. With the release of the Arendi Auracast TV Streamer, a manufacturer independent, Bluetooth LE low power solution is now available," says Thomas Rupp, CTO, Arendi AG. "We have for a long time had a good experience working with Nordic, but its early support for LE Audio made our decision to use its solutions an easy one," Rupp adds.
"Specifically, we selected the nRF5340 SoC for our TV streamer because of the dual core performance needed for audio codecs, and the nRF21540 RF FEM for the improved transmission power. The nRF Connect SDK with its software stack that supports LE Audio was also invaluable during development and was another of the main reasons behind our decision to use Nordic."
Arendi is a product development and design house with expertise in developing customized embedded connectivity solutions and mobile apps. The company expects to make the Auracast TV Streamer solution available during the last quarter of 2024, both as a reference design or a full turnkey solution. Optional features might include an HDMI ARC input, support for Dolby decoding, the possibility to have two stereo and one mono Broadcast (BIS) streams in parallel, and other features.
www.arendi.ch
www.nordicsemi.com
