Qualcomm Launches AI-Enabled Highly Integrated SoCs and Dedicated Smart Speaker Platform

Qualcomm made two important announcements for audio developers, both bound to significantly impact the fast-growing market of smart speakers and new generation whole-home audio systems. The San Diego company announced the new QCS400 family of audio SoCs and the Smart Audio Platform 400 development kit, bringing smart speakers high-performance processing, Qualcomm AI Engine, superior connectivity, and multiple advanced audio and visual display capabilities in a single, power-optimized chip architecture.

Responding to the challenges that were brought to the audio industry by the sweeping popularity of connected speakers and smart home devices, Swiss test and measurement specialist NTi Audio just announced an open loop test solution for its FX100 Audio Analyzer system and produced a tutorial using an Amazon Echo Dot device to demonstrate how to test the device's loudspeaker and microphone array using an open loop configuration test sequence.

Smart devices have proliferated across everyday life for Chinese people, offering considerable opportunities for global companies operating within the AI space – specifically focused on the voice assistant market. According to the latest report from SAR Insight & Consulting – China Voice Market – the average Chinese consumer has become much more positive about the benefits of owning connected devices helping to drive greater interest in the interactive voice functionality.

The audio measurement specialists at Listen announced the release of SoundCheck 16.1. This minor software release contains nevertheless some exciting new features for all developers and manufacturers working with connected audio devices, providing a test routine for smart speakers and other voice-controlled devices such as smartphones, robots, automotive audio, smart thermostats, hearables and more. The new software is available free of charge to all registered users of SoundCheck 16.0.

Knowles continues to expand its audio input technology product portfolio, as voice increasingly becomes the primary user interface for Internet of Things (IoT) devices and hearable applications. The company announced its new SPM0687LR5H-1 analog MEMS microphone with 70 dB Signal-to-Noise (SNR), for far-field connected audio solutions, such as voice recognition, and active noise cancelling (ANC) headphone applications.