Last week we enjoyed a well-deserved break, while remaining safely working from home on another edition of audioXpress magazine, and using valuable time to catch up remotely and safely with family members. At the same time, during a brief period that we assumed would be calmer, we couldn’t help feeling overwhelmed by the amount of announcements received - evidently, the rest of the world doesn’t know or care about Thanksgiving, and that’s actually quite obvious when looking at the audioXpress website, where we managed to highlight the most relevant stories.

Tip: If you want to see ALL the announcements, not just the highlights featured on our home page, regularly visit our NEWS section: https://audioxpress.com/news

Between the awful spamming torrent of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the news kept coming at a steady pace, a clear sign that the audio industry is now using the end of the year to compensate for a lot of things that were simply postponed in 2020 - the end-of-the-year rush that we wrote about in the previous edition of The Audio Voice.

This trend is noticeable in all market segments. Last week there were no shortage of announcements more focused on consumer applications, while this week it was time for important events targeting the development community and professional applications (notice how even Qualcomm chose this time of the year?). There is an interesting window for companies to stand out when effectively distributing their messages at this time.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) already opened registration for the first-ever, all-digital CES 2021 – on track to become one of the largest digital events - January 11-14, 2021. It’s going to be an interesting opportunity for CES to take the concept of digital online events to the next level. In this case, it is particularly important for many technology companies and consumer brands, who at least will be able to leverage the event to get their message out - while I predict many others will do it independently just before and after CES. It’s going to be a busy week for the press and global tech community in general. If little else, a virtual CES 2021 will be certainly effective for new product announcements, press events, and keynotes. Other companies in the tech space are advised not to schedule their own independent initiatives for that week. And don’t even think about webinars! You’ve been warned.

In its November 2020 edition, audioXpress featured another great Test & Measurement article from Dan Knighten (Audio Precision), on quality control measurements of audio devices and how to use audio measurements in manufacturing to ensure a specific level of quality while maximizing yield. In this article, Knighten focuses on the practical question of manufacturing test strategies and objectives, and he shares what measurements reveal about the device under test, offers suggestions for specific measurements, and provides techniques for various devices and scenarios.  Read the Full Article Now Available Here

Every month on his Acoustic Patents column for Voice Coil magazine, James Croft (Croft Acoustical) discusses different loudspeaker patents and inventions that are relevant to the audio industry. In the January 2015 edition, Croft reviewed a “Loudspeaker for Eliminating a Frequency Response Dip” patent, granted in November 12, 2014 to Harman International Industries, describing “a speaker system that includes a speaker enclosure having a front end, a rear end, and a first transducer. The front end is arranged to face a listening area. The rear end is arranged for being mounted to a mounting surface. The first transducer is positioned within the speaker enclosure for facing into the mounting surface such that the first loudspeaker transmits acoustic energy from the rear end towards the mounting surface to prevent a frequency-response dip with the transmitted acoustic energy.” This article was originally published in Voice Coil, January 2015.  Read the Full Article Now Available Here