Summit Wireless Demonstrates New Low-Cost Wireless Audio Module at CES 2022

January 4 2022, 01:55
Summit Wireless Technologies, the company behind the technology used by the Wireless Speaker and Audio Association (WiSA) has partnered with Espressif Systems to develop the company's latest Discovery wireless audio module. Discovery can support up to 4 separate wireless audio channels, ideal for 2.1 wireless sound expansion for TVs, or stereo to 3.1 home theater configurations including soundbar wireless surrounds and subwoofer applications. A low-cost wireless audio solution that is now production-ready.
 

The Summit Discovery Module is a compact, production-ready transceiver module design. In transmit mode the module can transmit up to 4 independent 48kHz PCM audio channels with low latency. In receive mode the module mates to the amplifier in active speakers and ensures tight speaker to speaker synchronization. The Summit transceiver will support a room size of 10 meters square while keeping speakers perfectly synchronized. The new Summit 2.4GHz wireless audio module is capable of delivering the reliability and quality commonly associated with more expensive 5GHz solutions. Based on Espressif’s popular and industry-proven Wrover module platform, Summit’s transceiver module will be demonstrated at CES 2022.

"We are excited to partner with leading wireless audio companies like Summit," says Swee-Ann Teo, CEO and president, Espressif Systems. "This new entry-level module fulfills the need for a cost-effective solution for soundbars as well as thinner smart TVs that need to connect wirelessly to surrounding speakers."

In the high volume home theater market, currently dominated by soundbars, companies are often forced to compromise wireless audio performance and reliability to achieve a cost advantage, putting their brand at risk. Summit's Discovery highly integrated wireless audio IoT class module and embedded software delivers reliable home theater performance, ultra-low power, in a cost effective form factor over standard Wi-Fi. 
 

This new low-cost module is powered by Summit Wireless advanced Wi-Fi compatible software, designed for fixed low latency wireless audio transmission. The solution uses a standard Wi-Fi network connection with AES 256 bit encryption, and can support up to four tightly synchronized 48kHz PCM audio channels, ideally suited for entry level home cinema applications and ideal for wireless soundbar rear channels and subwoofers, or stand alone systems up to 3.1 configurations. 

Discovery is also the first module to offer “ConexUs” technology for quick setup, taking only seconds to connect the audio network requiring no special user interface or access to network passwords. ConexUs is a new wireless speaker pairing process option that uses a simple button push to pair speakers and assign their correct audio channel. The ConexUs pairing process greatly simplifies the consumers’ out of box experience by eliminating the need for router access, network passwords, special user interfaces or mobile applications.

Summit partnered with Espressif Systems to create Discovery with  low-power specifications, fixed source-to-speaker latency meeting video lip-sync requirements, Dynamic Network Optimization (Dyno) technology for wireless link reliability and robustness, and low inter-channel delay between speakers ensuring a distortion free experience.

This product improves the consumer’s experience by delivering a robust wireless network designed to work in congested networks by minimizing network traffic with one time transmission of audio packets, and delivering uncompressed audio at 48 kHz sample rate with fixed source-to-speaker latency meeting video lip-sync requirements. The Discovery module is an IoT-class device module with a power rating for battery powered speaker applications.

"Espressif is the perfect partner to help develop and launch the Discovery module," says Brett Moyer, president and CEO of Summit Wireless Technologies. "We were looking for a partner whose module could meet our performance and reliability expectations for entry-level immersive audio systems and Espressif’s module met all the requirements. There is no better proof than the testing done by an independent test house demonstrating that the Discovery module at 2.4GHz performs better than competing 5GHz products sold in the marketplace today while also supporting additional audio channels."
 

The Discovery module will be demonstrated at CES 2022, January 5 – 7, in Las Vegas at the Summit Wireless suite at the Flamingo Hotel. To schedule a demonstration, send an email. Evaluation kits will be available January 2022.

Espressif Systems (688018.SH) is a public multinational, fabless semiconductor company established in 2008, with offices in China, the Czech Republic, India, Singapore and Brazil. The company is focused on developing cutting-edge wireless communication, low-power, AIoT solutions and has already created the popular ESP8266, ESP32, ESP32-S, ESP32-C and ESP32-H series of chips, modules and development boards.
www.summitwireless.com
www.espressif.com
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About Joao Martins
Since 2013, Joao Martins leads audioXpress as editor-in-chief of the US-based magazine and website, the leading audio electronics, audio product development and design publication, working also as international editor for Voice Coil, the leading periodical for... Read more

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