The Standards We Need. A Review of the Book "Introducing Bluetooth LE Audio" by Nick Hunn

This article is a review of the recently distributed book, Introducing Bluetooth LE Audio, by Nick Hunn, Chair of the Bluetooth SIG Hearing Aid Working Group, Vice Chair of the Generic Audio Working Group and a key contributor to the Bluetooth LE Audio specifications. This is an important book for everyone who wants to understand Bluetooth LE Audio. But has the industry momentum for Bluetooth LE Audio been lost? Two years after the original Bluetooth LE Audio announcement in 2020, all we have is a Book.

A rapidly growing number of platforms and playback devices now support xHE-AAC decoding natively, which means interrupted or buffering audio and video streams are becoming a thing of the past. Consumer devices powered by the latest Android, Fire and Apple operating systems support the most efficient AAC codec with mandatory MPEG-D DRC loudness and dynamic range control metadata – delivering a seamless streaming experience on any device in any environment.

Nugen Audio announced availability of the MasterCheck v1.7.0.1 update to its music streaming auditioning plug-in, which now includes MP3 and SoundCloud support. MasterCheck optimizes mixes for today’s delivery services, revealing problems ahead of time, and providing the tools that enable its users to audition and deliver masters that will reach the listener as intended.

With the release of the Android P beta 3 preview, Fraunhofer IIS announces a new version of the popular FDK library which has been a part of Android since 2012. The FDK2 version will bring several new technologies to Android OEMs, service providers and developers, including xHE-AAC for video and music delivery down to 12kbit/s for stereo sound and MPEG-D DRC dynamic range control for better listening in noisy environments. An important update for a very fragmented platform.