Lutron HomeWorks QS and RadioRA 2 Lighting Control Systems to Work with Amazon Alexa

Voice Personal Assistants are grabbing the AV industry’s attention for multiple applications. At CEDIA 2016, voice control is one of the hot topics, and Amazon’s Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) and the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) are allowing developers to build new capabilities for Alexa and integrate Alexa into their own products. Lutron announced Alexa integration with its control systems allowing users to adjust the lights, shades and temperature simply using voice commands.

Prominent provider of voice-enabled controllers and music connectivity ICs, XMOS Ltd., has announced the appointment of Mark Lippett as President and Chief Executive Officer. Lippett, a 10-year veteran of XMOS, previously held VP Engineering and COO roles within the business. Prior to XMOS, he served as CTO of Ignios, and held engineering and marketing roles at Texas Instruments, Lucent and Madge Networks. Outgoing CEO, Nigel Toon, has assumed the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Wearable technology specialists, LifeBEAM announced a partnership with Harman International to provide high-fidelity audio for the world’s first AI-based earphones and personal trainer, called Vi. LifeBEAM’s first consumer product, combines Harman Kardon high-fidelity sound with the brand’s sophisticated design, and built-in aerospace-grade biosensors, allowing consumers to listen to updates on vitals including heart rate and its variability, motion, elevation and other environmental sensors.

Conexant announced that their AudioSmart software has been integrated into Qualcomm’s Hexagon digital signal processor family, found in over a billion smart devices worldwide. With Conexant’s audio software inside, consumers will benefit from clearer voice communication and accurate speech recognition from their smart devices, even in noisy conditions, up to five meters away from the target device.

Primacoustic announced an update to its popular nearfield absorber VoxGuard. The VoxGuard VU now features a window to improve sight lines between a vocalist/musician and recording engineer/producer, while retaining all of the benefits of acoustic isolation for use in a recording studio.

Conexant’s new I2S audio Codec and AudioSmart software offers noise cancellation and full-duplex acoustic echo cancellation for tablets, allowing better voice quality even in noisy environments. Conexant also introduced a Linux software solution for voice control and communication in smart home products and unveiled its new Smart Voice Pickup (SVP) technology for headsets, based on its proprietary SSP noise suppression algorithm.