Sound Bar Platforms help OEMs to deliver leading edge audio performance with reduced development time

8 Aug 2017 | SAN DIEGO

Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, announced today that the MAPX audio SoC family now supports the DTS Virtual:X® post processing audio solution, which is designed to deliver immersive sound to consumers. This next-generation technology is designed to translate any input source, from stereo to 11.1-channel content, into a format that can play back on a traditional 5.1, 3.1 or 2.1 speaker setup, including sound bars, which help deliver a compelling immersive listening experience for consumers without the need for height speakers. In addition to virtual height and virtual surround, DTS Virtual:X technology supports bass enhancement and multiband hard limiter features.

“The addition of DTS Virtual:X technology to our MAPX SoC family helps support our customers in the development of highly differentiated and cost effective sound bars that are designed to deliver superior audio experiences building on this new capability. DTS Virtual:X adds another high-quality feature to our widely used sound bar platforms, and is designed to greatly improve the end-user experience by recreating the effect of immersive without the need for additional speakers,” said Anthony Murray, senior vice president and general manager, voice and music, Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd.

“An increasing number of Blu-ray and 4K UHD Blu-ray movies are being released with immersive audio but most consumers do not have height speakers in their ceilings nor upfiring speakers. With DTS Virtual:X, we have created a fully-immersive sound experience for consumers to enjoy without needing to install height speakers in their ceiling,” said Joanna Skrdlant, general manager, home audio and solutions licensing, DTS, a subsidiary of Xperi Corporation. “Additionally, consumers can enjoy their current collection of DVD and Blu-ray movies, or listen to their favorite TV shows using DTS Virtual:X to deliver a larger sound image with improved audio detail.”

As part of our sound bar reference design portfolio, MAPX helps developers design a wide range of end products with minimal incremental PCB design effort taking advantage of the flexibility and commonality of device variants on the platform. MAPX is available as seven sub-families which have varying levels of embedded DSP, RAM and on-chip analog and digital audio I/O interfaces. Devices based on the same package type are pin compatible and the entire family of MAPX SoCs are designed to be software compatible. This makes it easier for developers to switch between different devices, helping to create unique products with varying feature sets more efficiently and easily.

“Our sound bar platforms are progressively refined by a team of audio experts who are helping to bring world class audio technology to a very broad range of audio products across the consumer electronics ecosystem. By combining all of the necessary silicon, software and tools needed to support source-to-speaker processing for sound bar applications we are helping our customers meet the needs of this growing market more efficiently and cost-effectively,” added Murray.

Qualcomm® MAPX sound bar platforms are available now – more information can be found here.