Futuresource's Audio Collaborative 2020 Expands as Two-Day Live-Streamed Event

Futuresource Consulting is putting together another edition of the company's renowned Audio Collaborative event, which for 2020 will be shifting to an all-virtual experience. With health and safety being of prime importance during the coronavirus outbreak, Futuresource must ensure all co-workers, exhibitors, thought leaders and attendees feel at ease to best experience and deliver the range of fascinating topics lined up. Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th of November, from 14:00 – 18:00 GMT, Audio Collaborative 2020 will be more global than ever.

The CE Team at Futuresource Consulting shared some key topics and trends from its latest Global Home Audio Report, revealing how home audio products have returned to strength in Q2 2020. Global home audio products posted an unexpected strong performance in Q2 2020, delivering 20% shipment growth and 10% value growth quarter-on-quarter, according to preliminary results from Futuresource Consulting’s latest quarterly tracker. APAC leads the way, with North America and Western Europe in recovery.

During a special event promoted to announce a new generation of Amazon Alexa products, technologies and solutions, Amazon introduced an all-new line-up of Echo devices to expand its Alexa voice assistant ecosystem in the home and now also on-the-go. The all-new Echo Buds, using ANC technology licensed from Bose, join the Echo Auto as another option to take Alexa outside the home. The new Echo speakers also include the Echo Studio, engineered in collaboration with Dolby and supporting HRA and immersive audio reproduction.

Futuresource Consulting revealed the latest findings from its World Wide Home Audio Report, confirming the worldwide home audio market signaled an increase of 21% in units in 2018, whilst posting revenues of nearly $15 billion, with major contributions from smart speakers to drive the growth. According to Futuresource, the growing presence of entry level smart speakers from Amazon, Google and Chinese brands impacted the overall average price for a home audio device, down by an estimated 12% the end of 2018.

Smart speakers are the hottest segment in consumer electronics, and Strategy Analytics has completed a major new survey of the first wave of users, to understand purchase motivations, usage, satisfaction and ownership patterns. The company's research leaves us in little doubt: smart speakers are a hit with the vast majority of people who are now using them (17% of the US screener population sample). Satisfaction levels are typically in the 90% range, and nearly two-thirds of users expect to buy another one within the next two years.

Bose announced what it claims to be "the next chapter" in the company's "legendary home audio history" with the introduction of a new wireless smart speaker and two new smart soundbars — the Bose Home Speaker 500 for music, and the Bose Soundbar 700 and Soundbar 500 for music and home theater. Each model combines size-defying performance with superior voice pickup and the power of Amazon Alexa now, other voice assistants to follow, and AirPlay 2 for simple streaming from Apple devices added in early 2019.