Industry & Product News
Genelec Introduces Aural ID Plug-In for Personalized Headphone Monitoring
Multiple years in development, Genelec has now made its Aural ID software technology available in an easy-to-use plug-in format that any audio content creator or audio engineer will be able to load in their favorite DAW software. The Aural ID plug-in provides a more flexible purchasing model and integrates smoothly into every audio professional's workflow, delivering a more truthful, reliable, and completely personalized headphone listening experience, for stereo to immersive audio content. Read More
DSP Concepts Closes New Funding Round and Appoints Yuchun Lee as Executive Chairman
DSP Concepts, the company founded by Paul and Chin Beckmann, and the creators of the Audio Weaver DSP platform that powers sound and voice features in many of the world's leading consumer and automotive brands, announced that it has successfully closed $28 million in Series C funding. Joining as leading investor, entrepreneur Yuchun Lee has been appointed as Executive Chairman and is intent on leading the company's growth as the enabler of the "Audio of Things." Read More
ArkX Labs Collaborates with Sensory for Enhanced Speech Recognition
ArkX Laboratories, a leading provider of advanced far-field voice capture and speech recognition technology, announced an expanded collaboration with Sensory, to incorporate its advanced speech recognition, natural language understanding, voice biometrics, wake words, facial recognition, and sound identification technologies with ArkX's production-ready EveryWord touchless voice solutions. New capabilities for the integrated solution will allow for ultra-low power "always listening" and natural-language touchless control. Read More
Merging Launches Pyramix V.14 Adding Powerful New Dolby Atmos for Music Features
Merging Technologies announced the availability of Pyramix V.14, an update made to measure for the latest requirements that have suddenly been thrown to studios and producers all over the world. With music streaming services transitioning to spatial audio mixes in Dolby Atmos, and requiring both more original content and repurposing of existing recordings, Pyramix V.14 focuses on retaining the highest quality processes for which the software is recognized, while automating tasks as much as possible. Read More
Audioengine Introduces New S6 Powered Subwoofer
Audioengine designs some of the best looking, and most affordable wireless speakers in the market, offering a wide range of options for desktop and general home audio use. To match the brand's compact active speakers, the new S6 subwoofer offers expanded performance in a compact size. With 210W of power in a subwoofer that fits almost anywhere, the S6 boosts any desktop, home theater, or gaming setup, using a front-firing woofer in a sealed box for deep and punchy bass. Read More
Lyd by Dissing Promotes Open-Source Wireless Speaker Project
Danish speaker designer Lyd by Dissing announced an original project for its latest development – the Strøm wireless speaker. According to Tue Dissing, the CEO and founder of Lyd by Dissing, the goal is to promote it as an open-source wireless speaker with support for both Bluetooth and Spotify Connect via Wi-Fi. This is one of 12 demonstration projects under the European Union OPENNEXT program, aimed at promoting community-based product design and manufacturing. The Strøm is a fully open-source project where both the cabinet construction and software platform are open sourced. Read More
COMSOL Announces Event Series Introducing Version 6.0 of COMSOL Multiphysics Software
COMSOL has opened registration for COMSOL Day: Version 6.0, a series of online events held around the world to better explain all the new exciting possibilities introduced with the latest COMSOL Multiphysics simulation software update. Starting January 27, there will be four events to introduce COMSOL Multiphysics version 6.0 to the global community involved in research and product development. A unique opportunity to learn more about simulation-driven design, collaborative simulation, and reliable designs. Read More
Mackie Announces M-Caster Live Compact Audio Streaming Mixer
Mackie, the professional audio manufacturer founded in 1988 by Greg Mackie and now the main brand of LOUD Technologies, announced the M-Caster Live Portable Live Streaming Mixer. Not just another repurposed live sound mixer, M-Caster Live was designed from the ground up for content creators and their unique needs. It combines audio interface, audio mixing, voice and processing effects, and even RGB lights, targeting social streamers, gamers, and podcasters. Read More
API Announces MC531 Monitor Controller with USB and Bluetooth
Automated Processes, Inc., better known as API in the professional audio industry and in particular the recording studio world, introduced the new MC531 Monitor Controller. The new product builds on the company's heritage of manufacturing the highest quality mixing and recording consoles and was "designed" to look unmistakably API. The MC531 is clearly meant to be "a truck," not a lifestyle product. Expect quality from the circuits and the sound, don't look too close at the rough details of the chassis. Read More
Editor's Desk
J. Martins
(Editor-In-Chief)
The Standards We Need
Do Audio Technologies Matter in the Smart Home?
Yes, audio and standards Matter. And that's probably going to be the last word pun I will use in this article, referring to the fact that the new standard for the Smart Home is called Matter. If you are wondering about the literal question in the title and what the concept of Smart Home represents for audio applications, all you have to think about is Wi-Fi. Does Wi-Fi matter for audio in our homes today? Of course it does. Yes, we have Bluetooth as well, but most likely streaming content to devices in the home is available originally through Wi-Fi - basically the convenient wireless network that extends our Internet connections. In fact, Wi-Fi technology has stepped ahead in the majority of homes, replacing old wired Ethernet networks - the few homes who had it, and which never upgraded from the old 10/100 standard, even though all our computers now already have 10Gbit Ethernet.

Residential integrators understand this well. While they have been building structured cabling using Ethernet-based technologies for whole home audio and distributed entertainment systems for years, their clients don't actually care what they use. Residential audio installations have been basically about building stuff behind the walls and hidden on the ceiling, with only screens and loudspeakers visible to the user. And when it comes to connecting those systems as part of a "smart home,” users want to wirelessly connect and control things from their own devices. And that fundamentally means Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, the Smart Home evolved so quickly that the integration business became mostly about configuring control interfaces and protecting access.
Samsung’s opening keynote of CES 2022 saw Samsung’s Head of Products & Engineering for SmartThings, Mark Benson, confirming Samsung’s commitment to the Matter smart home standard (jump to 43:00 on the video).
Are things moving too fast? Well, maybe not as fast as they should, considering that we have companies today in the industry still manufacturing and shipping hardware server contraptions using old PC motherboards with old USB 2.0 interfaces (and Gigabit Ethernet just because older Ethernet chips are no longer available). This, while we are now streaming all our content - including UHD 4K movies with Dolby Atmos soundtracks - over Wi-Fi directly to a TV, an Apple TV or STB, a laptop, or an iPad, most of the times. And consumers have no idea how to get audio signals out of the original receiving device - Optical out? HDMI? USB-C? No wonder many users still look immediately for the headphone jack, which at least everyone understands. It becomes clear that there's a lot of standards work needed.

And that's why Apple had success with AirPlay originally, which makes it easy to send a movie wirelessly from a smartphone directly to the living room TV. Likewise, it allows selecting a playlist on the smartphone and have it played in the main hi-fi system or a wireless speaker. But then it got complicated quickly. Chromecast and other "cast" technologies started to be advertised, smart TV manufacturers want consumers to access everything directly through their interfaces and platforms. And meanwhile mainstream consumers don't understand the difference between selecting music on the smartphone that is played over a Bluetooth speaker, and selecting the same music on the same smartphone that plays on a Spotify Connect-enabled Wi-Fi speaker (at least until they receive a phone call).

The audio industry is clearly at the end of the chain when it comes to offering interface solutions that match the content distribution services and fast broadband networks we get at home. If consumers don't understand when they play music over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (and don't care), how are consumer electronics manufacturers going to "sell" the concept of multichannel wireless audio for home theater, such as those from the Wireless Speaker and Audio Association (WiSA), DTS Play-Fi, or anything new? I mean, we still don’t have a standard way to connect a wireless subwoofer from a brand to a soundbar from another brand. Now, add "spatial audio" reproduction to the mix, and suddenly the challenge seems insurmountable.

We now have soundbars that play out some sort of "3D sound" to improve the movie experience. Yet very few consumers even notice that the only reason why the soundbar is decoding all the original audio channels (and object-based metadata) is due to the fact that the TV (one of the consumer product categories with faster upgrade cycles) and the soundbar are both using the latest HDMI standard with eARC - which was specified in 2017, as part of the 2.1 standard.

And even though some early adopters and enthusiasts are already connecting their TVs and Apple TVs to multichannel wireless audio home theater systems, we have yet to define the best use of technology for wireless audio speakers - with WiSA being the best available option so far, but still restricted to surround sound and no support yet for immersive formats, such as Dolby Atmos or DTS:X.
At CES 2022, NXP introduced the IW612, the first secure tri-radio in a single SoC to bridge devices in the smart home that require connecting Thread or Bluetooth products to the cloud using the integrated Wi-Fi 6 radio. Additionally, the IW612 enables communication between Matter devices, regardless of whether the devices use Wi-Fi or Thread. This allows Matter-over-Wi-Fi products to control and monitor Matter-over-Thread devices, and vice versa, for seamless interoperability.
And now enter the Smart Home, where we have multiple devices that can be voice controlled (for those who feel comfortable talking to machines and having grandmother always jumping in the chair to ask "what did you say?"). And we have connected IP cameras and smart locks controlled by Google or Amazon, lights and thermostats controlled from Apple devices using HomeKit, and Facebook pitching hardware for closely tunneled "family" videochat terminals that make sure we keep using Facebook or Instagram, while we share our home networks as part of Facebook Wi-Fi.

Are any of these devices and the latest technologies "talking" to our audio and entertainment systems? Of course! Through smart speakers, smart displays, or smart TVs that are control hubs, essentially designed to become the center of home systems. That is what the Apple HomePod Mini is all about. The problem is, the vast majority of consumers will end up listening to music in the tiny mini HomePod speaker, instead of using it to control the Mark Levinson integrated amplifier and $20,000 Revel speakers.

And why would they if that means sitting still… looking at the speakers? Younger generations will continue to look in disdain to their parents living room hifi systems while they resort to wearing earbuds most of the time for their entertainment (if they are not the type to accept playing music through the smartphone speakers!!...). And that right there, is reason enough why we need better standards for the Smart Home.

That is why we need Matter and that is why Matter is important for audio.
Infineon Technologies launched the new AIROC Bluetooth LE and 802.15.4 family of devices to help companies quickly bring low-power, high-performing Matter products to market. Infineon’s new AIROC CYW30739 Bluetooth LE and 802.15.4 system on chip (SoC) is promoted as a reliable, secure, and scalable solution to connect low-power devices in the smart home.
If Apple Says it Works…
So, does Matter suddenly solve all of these problems? Well, not immediately but it certainly creates an important foundation, much in the same way as Wi-Fi accelerated home networking. What is needed is to actually see how the hundreds of manufacturers who are supporting Matter address its use - and that was what we were supposed to be able to see at CES 2022 and we didn't.

If CES 2022 had been a normal show, Matter would most likely be the main highlight for this year, because everyone was planning to announce and demonstrate their support — and most didn’t. The few announcements were lost among the air purifiers and smart glasses - and smart glasses with air purifier. Also, because essentially Matter is not yet fully ready and is another example of the industry waiting for the "Apple push."

And another direct consequence of not having any relevant industry events, is the fact that we know very little about how much of the required work is actually ready. Technically, there's not much yet to detail on what Matter is. We just know that it matters (sorry).

As an example, Wi-Fi standards have drastically evolved with the introduction of Wi-Fi 6 and 6E in the last two years (unlike Bluetooth), with hundreds of products now commercially available. The Wi-Fi 6 standard is essential for the smart home, and Wi-Fi 6E promises to reduce RF interference in the home through the opening of the 6GHz band. At the same time, Wi-Fi standards continue to evolve to improve security, which is another cornerstone of the smart home. As many semiconductor companies such as Infineon are promoting, Wi-Fi 6 allows devices that are much more power efficient and enables combined integrated solutions with Bluetooth and other wireless network technologies, which is also essential for Matter.
Matter currently involves 220-plus companies supporting the Connectivity Standards Alliance's new universal standard for Connected Devices in the Smart Home, regardless of their underlying network protocols or ecosystems. The interoperability effort for all connected devices and appliances to communicate seamlessly uses a foundation of Internet Protocol (IP) and Bluetooth LE (for commissioning). Audio companies need to get involved now.
Without going into detail about Matter - the available "good intentions" information is available on the website www.buildwithmatter.com - it's important to highlight how the effort bridges a series of different "layers" of technology, where audio protocols and technologies can also interoperate. As a foundation for "connected things" in the home, Matter defines a common language for home networking, focusing on interoperability by translating the messages between devices from different manufacturers exchanged over Thread and ZigBee mesh networks (802.15.4 standards), Wi-Fi (802.11), and Ethernet technologies (and probably a few more will be added).

The Matter effort was founded in 2020 within the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which was formerly known as the Zigbee Alliance and has combined a series of technologies and efforts, part of what was generically called the Internet of Things - which is a complicated story. Anyone looking back at Zigbee technology will quickly find an intricate net of industry efforts and specifications that all started to converge in the same direction. The problem is that the perspective for IoT changed according to the scope. For large area deployments, it faced a fragmentation of competing efforts (NB-IoT, LoraWan, Sigfox, etc.), where the telecom operators will always have an interest - and probably the final word, in sync with regulators (think 6G).

Inside the home, these "connected devices" (in audioXpress we care for our readers sanity, and we systematically replace the meaningless "IoT" acronym with “connected devices") efforts needed to coexist in a limited bandwidth environment with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and all the technologies already in place for simple remote control, home automation, wireless sensor networks, safety, building automation, etc. And now, also increasingly facing new challenges by short-range radio and personal area network technologies, increasingly dominated by the converging UWB Alliance and the FiRa Consortium efforts around ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, near-field communication (NFC), and even Bluetooth LE.
Joining the Connected Home over IP industry effort in December 2019, Apple became a leading force in what is now Matter, an open-source approach for a new, interoperability standard connecting smart home technologies from Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance.
As I said before, the audio industry, its requirements, and applications are at the very end of the priorities for these efforts - even if with increasing relevancy because of voice interfaces and the importance of wearables (and hearables) for the mobile and consumer electronics industry. And that's why Matter really matters for the audio industry. Because it opens up an opportunity for innovation and some standardization in the smart home.

Matter is an industry-unifying standard that promises reliable, secure connectivity — a seal of approval that devices will work seamlessly together, today and tomorrow. If this sounds familiar, it is because that's precisely how we used to describe analog audio connectivity. And we need exactly that in the wireless age since we didn't manage to build anything similar for physical digital audio interfaces. Matter opens up the opportunity to create connections between more applications, simplifying development for manufacturers, and making things easier for consumers.
Apple's HomePod mini smart speaker is designed effectively to be a central part of the company's HomeKit strategy for the smart home, centered on security and privacy. Matter allows the critical interoperability that HomeKit is currently missing outside of its ecosystem.
This collaborative effort is built on proven technologies and guided by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, promoted by 220-plus companies as active members at the time of writing. Leading the effort are executives from Amazon, Apple, Google, IKEA, Infineon, Legrand, Lutron Electronics, NXP, Schneider Electric, Silicon Labs, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments (my selection).

Of course, the key companies for now are the semiconductor players paving the way for product development. NXP and Infineon have made important Matter announcements at CES 2022 that need to be noticed by audio manufacturers. Notice also that most leading CEDIA members are involved, as are all the home automation, lighting, and home security players. What is missing in that list are key contributors in audio technology such as Bose, Harman, Summit Wireless, Sound United, Lenbrook, and Xperi. Basically, Sonos and Ikea are the only companies involved so far to represent our industry.

Time for audio manufacturers to get involved and tell Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook what matters.
Audio Electronics
Cascodes, Folded Cascodes, and Current Mirrors (Part 2) - Current Mirrors and Line Stages
By Morty Tarr
In Part 1 of this three-part article about circuit topologies that are used to provide specific functions for an amplifier design, the author discussed cascodes and folded cascodes. In this Part 2, he focuses on current mirrors and line stages. As the author writes, “As designers, we have many devices to choose from. Some devices are ideally suited to certain tasks. Other tasks require performance that is difficult to achieve. While many excellent devices exist today, ideal devices do not exist, except maybe in Spice simulations.” This article was originally published in audioXpress, November 2021.  Read the Full Article Now Available Here
Voice Coil Test Bench
Purifi Audio’s PTT4.0X04-NFA-01 Home Audio 4" Midbass
By Vance Dickason
This Test Bench addresses Purifi Audio’s PTT4.0X04-NFA-01 4” midbass, which is very similar to the PTT6.5X reviewed in Voice Coil July 2021, and includes the same constant Sd surround and low magnetic hysteresis motor design, also discussed in a dedicated article by the company’s founders. The distinct cone assembly for this driver consists of a flat profile paper cone made with a proprietary fiber mix, a concave dust cap that covers about 90% of the cone surface, plus the addition of a V-shaped edge reinforcing ring glued around the outside rim of the back side of the cone, which makes the cone edge extremely stiff, and is designed to dampen cone edge resonances. Compliance is provided by a unique NBR surround, which as in the PTT6.5X surround, deserves to be explored, motivating Vance to discuss it with Purifi’s co-founder Lars Risbo. No doubt, one of the most detailed Test Bench characterizations on a product that truly deserves that degree of discussion. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, November 2021. Read the Full Article Now Available Here
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