All items tagged with smart speakers (254)
Amazon Announces New Amazon Echo and Echo Plus Smart Speakers and Introduces New Alexa Products
September 28, 2017 by Joao Martins

Amazon Announces New Amazon Echo and Echo Plus Smart Speakers and Introduces New Alexa Products

Amazon is not resting on its laurels in voice personal assistants. The company continues to severely undercut Google's ambitions with the Google Home, Assistant and Chromecast products, while jumping ahead to compete head to head with Apple and undermining Apple's plans for Siri and the smart home. The company just announced a completely revamped line of Echo speakers with lower prices and improved everything, as well as new classes of Echo devices.
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TIBO Electronics Choros Tap Smart Speaker Supports Multiroom Mode with Amazon Alexa
September 28, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

TIBO Electronics Choros Tap Smart Speaker Supports Multiroom Mode with Amazon Alexa

Founded in 2010, British company TIBO was one of the brands that had honors of debuting its new Choros Tap on the Amazon booth during the 2017 IFA Show in Berlin. The TIBO Choros Tap was the UK’s first third party, multi-play, multi-connect active speaker supported by Amazon Alexa. The UK is the second largest market for voice-assisted products after the US, followed closely by Germany.
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XMOS Powers Growth in Voice with $15M Funding Round Led by Infineon Technologies
September 27, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

XMOS Powers Growth in Voice with $15M Funding Round Led by Infineon Technologies

XMOS Ltd, a leading vendor in voice capture solutions for the OEM consumer electronics market, has successfully complete a $15M Series-E funding round. The round was led by Infineon Technologies with additional funding from existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Draper Esprit, Foundation Capital and Robert Bosch Venture Capital. Following previous platform cooperations, Infineon Technologies AG acquired a minority stake in the company, strengthening the strategic partnership.
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NPR and Edison Research Release New Report on Smart Speakers
September 26, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

NPR and Edison Research Release New Report on Smart Speakers

When NPR and Edison Research released The Smart Audio Report in June 2017, one thing was clear: Voice-activated smart speakers are becoming a must-have device in American homes. The original report revealed that 42% of smart speaker owners consider their device "essential" to everyday life and 65% wouldn't want to go back to life without one. Now available now NPR and Edison Research, a second part of the report reveals how smart speakers influence purchase behavior.
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FABRIQ Chorus Speaker offers Voice Activated Alexa Service with Multi-room Connectivity
September 20, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

FABRIQ Chorus Speaker offers Voice Activated Alexa Service with Multi-room Connectivity

FABRIQ unveiled the next generation of its Alexa-enabled, multi-room speaker. Named Chorus, the smart speaker combines the voice activated Alexa service powered by far-field voice recognition with high-quality sound and multi-room connectivity. The development was once again based on Linkplay's AVS platform, which uses Conexant’s microphone solutions and Sensory’s voice awake technology.
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Libre Wireless Technologies Introduces Mic-to-Cloud Voice Module with Integrated Far Field Voice Interface/Control Based on DSP Group’s SmartVoice Technology
September 6, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

Libre Wireless Technologies Introduces Mic-to-Cloud Voice Module with Integrated Far Field Voice Interface/Control Based on DSP Group’s SmartVoice Technology

Libre Wireless Technologies announced the launch of their new LS5BV LibreSync module featuring fully integrated and optimized far field voice interface capabilities as well as extensive music streaming and multiroom audio features. This small and low power mic-to-cloud module uses DSP Group’s SmartVoice technology and HDClear SoC with sophisticated algorithms for detecting and processing far field voice, including advanced noise reduction, echo cancellation, music barge-in and audio processing features.
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Harman Introduces Harman Kardon Allure with Amazon Alexa
September 2, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

Harman Introduces Harman Kardon Allure with Amazon Alexa

At IFA 2017, Harman International introduced the Harman Kardon Allure, a smart speaker with Amazon Alexa Voice Service (AVS) that complements any home space with 360-degree sound. By pairing Harman Kardon’s refined audio performance with Alexa’s intuitive voice technology, Harman expects to attract music enthusiasts and voice-activated speaker users frustrated with the low quality sound experience of the Amazon Echo speaker.
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Sony Electronics Introduces LF-S50G Wireless Speaker with Google Assistant
September 1, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

Sony Electronics Introduces LF-S50G Wireless Speaker with Google Assistant

Promising a Smarter Way to Enjoy Music, Sony's announcements at the IFA 2017 show in Berlin follow the predictable consumer trends, offering access to voice personal assistants and improved wireless smart home features. Sony's new LF-S50G wireless speaker combines high quality sound with the smart features of the Google Assistant built-in. The LF-S50G can be used "smartly" in the kitchen with handy clock functionality and is IPX3 splash-proof design with a water repellant surface.
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Home Audio Revenues on Target to Grow 17% in 2017
July 26, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

Home Audio Revenues on Target to Grow 17% in 2017

A new report from Futuresource Consulting shows the home audio market continues to outpace the wider home electronics market, thanks in great part to the success of smart and wireless speakers, and soundbars. Futuresource's new Worldwide Audio Report highlights that Amazon commands 90% of smart speaker’s sales as well as other key trends. However, the story is not so good for many legacy categories such as hi-fi systems and loudspeakers and home-theatre-in-a-box systems.
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Voice Application Opportunities for the Audio Industry
July 20, 2017 by Joao Martins

Voice Application Opportunities for the Audio Industry

In previous editorials, I have highlighted the important role of smart speakers in promoting the user case for voice personal assistants (VPAs) and voice recognition applications - given the ideal combination of far-field microphone arrays with a complete audio ecosystem that encompasses digital signal processing, acoustic echo cancelation, noise cancellation, and many other technologies. This opens significant opportunities for the audio industry, given we understand the challenges.
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