Research from Fraunhofer IDMT Finds Use of Soundbars Actually Improves TV Viewing Experience

The German Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, in Oldenburg, Germany, has compared the speech intelligibility and sound quality of a Samsung smart TV and a Samsung soundbar. The results show that using the soundbar considerably reduces listening effort in comparison to using only the TV set. 15 adults aged between 25 and 55 were invited to the Fraunhofer IDMT’s Sound Technologies Lab (STL) in Oldenburg for the study.

Dolby Laboratories and MStar Semiconductor, a semiconductor company for display and digital home solutions, announced a solution that will make it easier to implement immersive Dolby Atmos experiences on consumer TV sets worldwide. MStar has made available the latest iteration of Dolby Multistream Decoder MS12, which provides TV manufacturers with a single-package solution for decoding premium audio content — broadcast, file-based, OTT/VOD services, and pay-TV operators.

Phonak Audéo B-Direct is the world's first Bluetooth hearing aid that directly connects to any to any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone. The new hearing aid is the first product to make use of Sonova’s revolutionary SWORD chip and wireless radio technology. Truly hands-free, the new Phonak Audéo B-Direct allows hearing aid wearers to have phone conversations or stream TV through their hearing aids and delivers excellent sound quality thanks to the proven Belong platform and AutoSense OS.

Conexant’s new RoomAware Optimizer processing solution, part of the Conexant AudioSmart product family, has been adopted by LG Electronics for its 2016 lineup of OLED and UHD TVs. LG calls the feature ‘Magic Sound Tuning’ and allows users to automatically adapt speaker output to the room’s acoustics and the location of the TV in the room.