During CES, it's hard to keep up not only with the massive amount of announcements, but mainly with the length and breadth of events. While the audioXpress and Voice Coil team is still deeply involved with the activities in Las Vegas this week, I will focus on sharing some thoughts about a CES 2020 announcement with direct implications for the audio industry. Today I will focus on the wireless side, with the new Bluetooth audio update, and very soon I expect to expand on some additional news coming from the wired USB front - also with important implications for audio.
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CES is where the entire technology ecosystem gathers to conduct business, launch products, build brands and partner to solve some of the world's most challenging issues. This year that's particularly noticeable.
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Heading our news update this week, is the LE Audio announcement, the next generation of Bluetooth audio. More than two years in the making, the updated Bluetooth Core Specification Version 5.2 and more specifically, the next generation of Bluetooth audio, Low Energy (LE) Audio will enhance the performance of wireless audio, and adds new extremely important possibilities, including Audio Sharing and Multi-Stream Audio applications.
LE Audio operates on the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) radio, made possible by LE Isochronous Channels, a new feature introduced in the latest version of the Bluetooth Core Specification that adds isochronous data transport on the Bluetooth LE radio. Not only does support for audio on LE allow for lower power consumption, but it also enables the development of devices capable of both wireless data transfer and audio streaming using a single-mode Bluetooth LE radio.
With LE Audio, we also have the introduction of a new, high-quality, low-power audio codec called LC3 (Low Complexity Communications Codec), focused mainly on providing high quality, even at low data rates, and allowing to manage audio quality and power consumption to best meet the target user experience. The sweet-spot for the LC3 codec, centered on 192kbps, allowing for better quality than SBC currently allows at 345kbps. And even though the folks from the Fraunhofer IIS, which once again conducted the research for LC3, stated that there isn't any limitation in terms of using higher bit-rates, it is clear that LE Audio is intended to provide the most efficient transmission possible at the lowest power. And this will be particularly important for true wireless earbuds, which were clearly the focus.
Being a complete end-to-end solution, which will require multiple lifecycle updates, including a renewal cycle for smartphones, it was interesting to discuss the timeline for the LE Audio implementation with the multiple companies that were represented at the Bluetooth SIG CES 2020 event, where the next generation of Bluetooth audio was announced. Some chip companies like Qualcomm, Microchip, Dialog Semiconductor, or Nordic Semiconductor had completely different perspectives on how they plan to bring the LE Audio updates to market. Nordic was clearly the most optimistic, since its current silicon Bluetooth 5 platforms are able to support the new specification with a simple software update.
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Ken Kolderup, VP of marketing for the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, details the expected LE Audio timeline.
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As Ken Kolderup, the VP of marketing for the Bluetooth Special Interest Group explained in the presentation, the LE Audio "launch" will span over 36 months until the technology adoption gains critical scale, even with an enthusiastic support from the industry. And most important, as some of the companies involved in the LE Audio demonstrations have also noted, there will be a critical period within the next 18 to 24 months, where the dominant players in the space will be able to expand their current proprietary approaches and gain further advantages in the market during the transition to LE Audio.
As the companies currently involved in the race towards high resolution wireless audio transmission over Bluetooth will also note, there's nothing in the LE Audio update or much less in the low-power audio codec LC3 that supports or questions their strategy. Qualcomm with the higher bit rate options in the aptX Adaptive technology (and aptX HD), or Sony with its LDAC codec, already have significant market traction in the consumer space and this is expected to expand.
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The companies that attended and promoted LE Audio demonstrations during the Bluetooth SIG event at CES 2020.
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In fact, most of the technologies that are involved in this Bluetooth audio update are first and foremost engineering solutions that were identified as requirements by the industry to solve their current product development challenges. While the LC3 codec will clearly benefit the vast majority of those consumers that currently use the SBC codec without even realizing, outside of the engineering departments, no one was asking for more efficient audio compression.
But then again, the engineering challenges of transitioning to wireless headphones and earbuds, or designing longer lasting portable speakers and mobile devices, remain completely ignored by the consumer. As the recent 2019 Bluetooth Market Update reveals, Bluetooth is globally recognized and accepted in traditional markets like audio, automotive, or smartphones, and has grown from a preferred feature to a requisite technology. And even with the current limitations and sometimes poor performance of many existing products, consumer demand seems to be insatiable, with 50% of all headphones sold today including Bluetooth.
As Luke Pearce, from Futuresource Consulting, recently reported, the worldwide headphones aftermarket is growing 37% in value (in 2019) and the price consumers are willing to pay pushes ever higher, up 32% year-on-year in the year to October 2019, to $74. "The in-ear form factor is showing the strongest growth, with Apple's AirPods prompting a flurry of releases from other brands and creating a major new sub-category of true wireless headphones, a category which will grow by 25% CAGR from 2019 to 2023. True wireless has also helped to grow the total in-ear segment, which now accounts for over two-thirds of all aftermarket headphones shipments."
And as the recent Futuresource Audio Tech Lifestyles consumer study - carried out in the USA, UK, Germany, China and Japan - reveals, the vast majority of users already owns two or more pairs of headphones, and they are open to adopt new wireless headphones for listening on-the-move, while investing in over-ear and higher-end headphones purely for audio listening. And probably the largest market shift will occur with hearables, or consumer headphones starting to be adopted by those with hearing difficulties, creating a crossover with hearing aids, and paving the way for "smart hearable products, able to amplify and enhance speech while filtering out ambient background noise."
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Synopsys collaborated with Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) to release an implementation of the next-generation Bluetooth LE Audio LC3 codec optimized for the company's DesignWare ARC EM DSP and HS DSP processors.
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Therefore, existing consumer expectations and the general market perception towards Bluetooth will be one of the aspects to explore during the transition period to LE Audio. While many manufacturers will focus on quickly expand on the possibilities this updated technology will allow, others will look at differentiation by offering optimizations in areas that are already recognized by consumers. Like augmented hearing, noise cancellation, or higher quality wireless audio, able to convey the additional quality that is also currently offered by music streaming services using lossless codecs such as FLAC, and providing access to high resolution audio or master digital files.
For the many manufacturers currently announcing new products at CES 2020, that has been clearly the focus, and multiple technology companies are already offering solutions for those challenging engineering requirements, while also meeting consumer's expectations in key areas such as battery life, and fast charging. The difference is, today's solutions are all basically proprietary (and even exclusive, such as in Apple's case). With the availability and adoption of LE Audio, there will be a new "basic" layer that will offer a robust, affordable, and consistent experience to everyone, while at the same time eventually helping to promote new use cases that consumer's today don't even imagine, like tuning to a broadcast audio channel during a live sports event, assistive listening in classrooms, or sharing audio with a group of friends.
