Audio design engineering companies APTX, Bang & Olufsen ICEpower, and Bluegiga Technologies have collaborated to produce an integrated module reference design and evaluation kit for speaker OEMs seeking to upgrade existing passive products to wireless active systems.
This module concept combines Class D amplification from Bang & Olufsen ICEpower A/S (Lyngby, Denmark), a wireless interface from Bluegiga Technologies Oy (Espoo, Finland), and audio coding software from APTX (Belfast, Northern Ireland).
The collaboration has produced an evaluation kit with proven hardware and firmware that can accelerate new product development and support the market shift to wireless and active loudspeaker systems.
According to Stephen Wray, VP Licensing of APTX, the kit is specifically targeted at speaker OEMs seeking to upscale their products from simple passives to cutting-edge wireless active technology. He said that ICEpower was one of the first audio companies to pioneer the industry transformation from analog to high-efficiency switching technologies. With this new modular solution, electronics OEMs can now retrofit existing passive loudspeaker systems, provide Bluetooth wireless interoperability, and deliver really professional audio quality that's indistinguishable from wired speaker systems. This new modular solution delivers a very impressive dynamic range of more than 92 dB at CD sampling rates (16 bit / 44.1 kHz).
ICEpower has boosted the power efficiency of the amplifier and power supply from the 50 to 70 percent of traditional analog designs to 80 to 95 percent thanks to advance Class D techniques.
Bluegiga supplies the WT32 Bluetooth audio module, which integrates a 2.4 GHz radio, DSP, battery charger, stereo apt-X audio coding, and antenna. The WT32 offers full support for the latest 2.1 + EDR standard via Bluegiga iWRAP firmware.
Source: APTX
Imagery: APTX
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