ALL NEWS ITEMS
Sony Announces Google Assistant on Google Home Support for Audio and Video Products
by audioXpress Staff

Sony Announces Google Assistant on Google Home Support for Audio and Video Products

Sony continues its love-affair with Google by promoting integration of its most recent audio and video products with Google’s Voice Personal Assistant. Sony speakers with Chromecast built-in and Sony 4K HDR televisions with Android TV now work with Google Home, a voice-activated speaker powered by the Google Assistant. This allows activating and controlling streaming music services, and even multi-room features. But you have to say “Ok Google” out loud a lot…
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Merging Technologies Launches New Benchmark AKD8D and AKD8DP A/D Cards
by audioXpress Staff

Merging Technologies Launches New Benchmark AKD8D and AKD8DP A/D Cards

Merging Technologies introduced two new cards for its Horus and Hapi range of Networked Audio Interfaces. The new boards are available in two versions. The AKD8D is the standard version giving superlative results up to 192kHz PCM. The AKD8DP extends the range up to 384kHz and includes all variants of DSD up to 256 and DXD. Both boards offer ultra-low distortion and noise floor at low levels whilst reducing latency even more.
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Oticon to Showcase Opn Internet Connected Hearing Aid at CES 2017
by audioXpress Staff

Oticon to Showcase Opn Internet Connected Hearing Aid at CES 2017

Oticon will showcase Oticon Opn at 2017 CES. Oticon Opn is the world’s first hearing aid to connect to the Internet via the IFTTT network and was honored with 2017 CES Innovations Awards in two categories – Tech for a Better World and Wearable Technologies. The small, discreet hearing device can be programmed to talk directly with doorbells, smoke detectors & other smart devices via the Oticon ON App, and overcomes noisy environment challenges.
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HelloEar Promotes Ergonomically Designed Arc Earphones on Kickstarter
by audioXpress Staff

HelloEar Promotes Ergonomically Designed Arc Earphones on Kickstarter

“Never will your earphones cause you pain, or fall out of your ears again,” pitches HelloEar, promoting its ergonomically designed Arc earphones. HelloEar used its experience on the custom IEM market for musicians to build an extensive database of inner-ear shapes and sizes. The result is now being applied in the new Arc earphones, now campaigning on Kickstarter, and featuring technology from Danish balanced armature experts, Sonion.
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New THX AAA Headphone Amplifier Offers World’s Lowest Levels of Distortion, Noise and Power Consumption
by audioXpress Staff

New THX AAA Headphone Amplifier Offers World’s Lowest Levels of Distortion, Noise and Power Consumption

THX, renowned for the certification of world-class cinemas and electronic devices, has partnered with Triad Semiconductor to manufacture its revolutionary TSTHX-88 headphone amplifier ASIC. According to THX, the THX AAA Headphone Amplifier technology offers the world’s lowest levels of distortion and noise alongside incredibly low power consumption and it outperforms every other amplifier technology in the marketplace.
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Nielsen Acquires Music Metadata Service Gracenote for $560 Million
by audioXpress Staff

Nielsen Acquires Music Metadata Service Gracenote for $560 Million

Nielsen announced it has entered into an agreement with Tribune Media Company to purchase Gracenote, the industry’s premier provider of media and entertainment metadata, including the music metadata provided to all major digital music services, including Spotify and Apple iTunes. With this transaction, Nielsen will acquire the data and technology that underpins the programming guides and personalized user experience for major video, music, audio and sports content.
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New NFC Forum Specifications Enable Near Field Communication Devices to Communicate with Broader Range of Devices and Tags
by audioXpress Staff

New NFC Forum Specifications Enable Near Field Communication Devices to Communicate with Broader Range of Devices and Tags

The NFC Forum announced the availability of three adopted and one candidate technical specifications, following approval by the Board of Directors. Significant enhancements to these specifications include the addition of Active Communication Mode (ACM) for Peer-to-Peer Mode (P2P) communication, support of NFC-V Technology compatible to ISO/IEC 15693 and the introduction of the NFC-V based Type 5 Tag allowing NFC devices to communicate with a broader range of devices and tags.
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ams Expands its Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) Technology Portfolio with Incus Laboratories Acquisition
by audioXpress Staff

ams Expands its Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) Technology Portfolio with Incus Laboratories Acquisition

ams is closing out the year with another acquisition to boost its leadership in audio sensors and active noise cancellation (ANC). The company will acquire Incus Laboratories Ltd, a UK-based privately-held provider of intellectual property (IP) for digital active noise cancellation in headphones and earphones. Incus’ design tool suite and acoustic characterization technology, allows ams to offer easier OEM implementations.
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Powersoft Boosts Engineering Capacity in North America, with Appointment of Gino Pellicano
by audioXpress Staff

Powersoft Boosts Engineering Capacity in North America, with Appointment of Gino Pellicano

Powersoft has appointed Gino Pellicano to the newly created position of Applications Engineer. In his new role, Pellicano will report to Kurt Metzler, U.S. Sales Director, Powersoft, effective immediately. The position increases Powersoft’s outreach and support capacities for its branded rackmount amplifiers as the global company looks to build on its engineering capabilities across multiple regions.
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QSC Announces Q-SYS Platform Software Release to Support AES67
by audioXpress Staff

QSC Announces Q-SYS Platform Software Release to Support AES67

QSC, a member company of the Media Networking Alliance (MNA), has announced that it will incorporate support for AES67 in its Q-SYS Platform with the forthcoming Q-SYS Designer v5.3 software release. Introduction of support for the networked audio interoperability standard will allow audio distribution between Q-SYS and other systems supporting AES67 without additional hardware.
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