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Sony Mobile Introduces Bold New Open-ear Wired and True Wireless Earphones
by Joao Martins

Sony Mobile Introduces Bold New Open-ear Wired and True Wireless Earphones

At the Barcelona, 2018 Mobile World Congress, Sony Mobile announced its Xperia Ear Duo truly wireless concept, which should be reaching the market in Spring 2018. According to Sony, the Xperia Ear Duo was built to reimagine the wireless headset with a bold new Spatial Acoustic Conductor open-ear design, featuring notifications and environmental awareness, with Google Assistant or Siri support. A similar design is available on the Open-ear Stereo Headset STH40D wired model.
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Sescom Attenuating Line to Mic Level Cables for 2-Volt Audio Signals
by audioXpress Staff

Sescom Attenuating Line to Mic Level Cables for 2-Volt Audio Signals

Sescom, a manufacturer of professional audio transformers and interface technology from Mount Marion, N.Y., introduced a new range of attenuating line to mic level cables that provide properly matched mic level signals to popular video-recording DSLR cameras and other devices accepting mic level audio only. Available in two models, with RCA male plugs or with XLR female plugs, both models are also terminated with a 3.5mm stereo plug.
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STMicroelectronics and USound Demonstrate MEMS Speaker Headphones at MWC 2018
by Joao Martins

STMicroelectronics and USound Demonstrate MEMS Speaker Headphones at MWC 2018

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.
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Huawei Enters Patent License Agreement for Fraunhofer IIS MPEG-4 Audio Patent Portfolio
by Joao Martins

Huawei Enters Patent License Agreement for Fraunhofer IIS MPEG-4 Audio Patent Portfolio

Global communications equipment provider Huawei has entered into a worldwide patent license agreement with the renowned developer of audio and media technologies, Fraunhofer IIS, for Fraunhofer’s MPEG-4 Audio patent portfolio. The license agreement addresses past and future use of Fraunhofer’s MPEG-4 Audio patent portfolio in Huawei’s products. The patents cover compression formats for perceptual coding of audio signals, including some variations of Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), and other audio/speech coding formats and tools.
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Texas Instruments Announces New Low-Power Multi-Standard Multi-Band SimpleLink MCU Platform
by Cristina Costa

Texas Instruments Announces New Low-Power Multi-Standard Multi-Band SimpleLink MCU Platform

To meet growing connectivity needs, Texas Instruments (TI) introduced its newest SimpleLink wireless and wired microcontrollers (MCUs). These new devices offer industry-leading low power consumption and concurrent multi-standard and multi-band connectivity for Thread, Zigbee, Bluetooth 5 and Sub-1 GHz. With more memory and unlimited connectivity options, the expanded SimpleLink MCU platform offers 100 percent code reuse across TI’s Arm Cortex-M4-based MCUs to enhance and connect sensor networks to the cloud.
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TDK Acquires Ultrasonic MEMS Sensing Solutions Developer Chirp Microsystems
by audioXpress Staff

TDK Acquires Ultrasonic MEMS Sensing Solutions Developer Chirp Microsystems

TDK Corporation announced that it has reached an agreement with Chirp Microsystems, a pioneer in high-performance ultrasonic sensing, headquartered in Berkeley, California. With the acquisition, Chirp becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of TDK, enhancing its existing technology in fingerprint sensors, MEMS sensors, and Piezoelectric transducer product lines. “TDK aims to be the leader in the ultrasonic MEMS sensors and solutions market,” says Shigenao Ishiguro, TDK’s President and CEO.
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Social Music Platform BandLab Technologies Buys What's Left of Cakewalk
by Joao Martins

Social Music Platform BandLab Technologies Buys What's Left of Cakewalk

In the middle of all the turmoil around the rumors of the collapse of Gibson Brands, there's some sort of good news for musicians and many home and project studios. Following the hard-to-understand news, back in November 2017, that Gibson was closing Cakewalk - the first clear sign that the group was facing serious financial troubles - there is now a confirmation that not everything is lost for users of Cakewalk's products. Singapore-based BandLab Technologies confirmed the acquisition of Cakewalk Inc. remaining assets.
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CEVA Extends its IP Platforms for Bluetooth 5 and Wi-Fi Applications with RISC-V
by Joao Martins

CEVA Extends its IP Platforms for Bluetooth 5 and Wi-Fi Applications with RISC-V

Audio and voice signal processing specialists CEVA announced that the complete RivieraWaves suite of Bluetooth 5 (low energy and dual mode) and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax intellectual property (IP) platforms are now offered with an optional integrated open-source RISC-V MCU. These integration-ready system solutions are ideal for those manufacturers seeking freedom from standard 3rd party processor architectures.
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QuickLogic Collaborates with Shenzhen Horn Audio Company to Develop Bluetooth Headset Reference Design with Alexa Support
by audioXpress Staff

QuickLogic Collaborates with Shenzhen Horn Audio Company to Develop Bluetooth Headset Reference Design with Alexa Support

QuickLogic Corporation announced it has partnered with Shenzhen Horn Audio Co., Ltd. to deliver a Bluetooth-enabled headset reference design supporting Amazon Alexa Voice Services (AVS) for both Apple and Android smartphones and tablets. Based on QuickLogic's EOS S3 Voice and Sensor Processing Platform, the new reference design features advanced always-on and always-listening voice processing capabilities with the industry's lowest power consumption.
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Voice Coil March 2018 is Now Available!
by audioXpress Staff

Voice Coil March 2018 is Now Available!

This month, in Voice Coil, read our AISE 2018 Report, Christopher Struck discusses "Efficiency Bandwidth Product for Loudspeaker Drivers," and James Croft reviews a patent originally claimed in 2013 on a Double Coil Speaker design, now granted to Friedrich Reining (Vienna, Austria), on behalf of Sound Solutions International from China. In this month's Test Bench, Dickason examines two 1" compression drivers: a new PEEK diaphragm compression driver from Precision Devices, the PD.CD1N, and the Peerless by Tymphany DFM-2544R00-08. Download your copy now.
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