I’ve written about AirTunes in the past. Since late 2004, I’ve played with Apple’s wireless audio technology as a feature of iTunes and the Airport Express. I never tried it in concert with Apple TV, but for a couple years, I enjoyed three separate zones of home audio using two AirPort Expresses and a Mac mini. In the context of offering a solution for simple music playback across the home, it has always been a great solution.

For those who don’t know, AirTunes lets people stream music from any computer running iTunes to any AirTunes receiver located on the same local-area network. So you could have AirTunes receivers (up until now, only the AirPort Express and Apple TV), in any number of rooms in your house, and using iTunes, or an app from Apple called Remote, control what music is sent where. Users could then listen to music from any audio system plugged into either of their AirTunes devices, which presented basic line-level audio signals.

Well, today was a big day. Widely reported elsewhere, Apple announced a host of new products in their latest keynote address (new iPods, new Apple TV, iTunes 10, and an iOS 4.2 preview). Layered into the announcement was the fact that AirTunes has now been “re-branded” as part of a larger wireless media feature-set from Apple, newly dubbed AirPlay, which also encompasses video and photo sending around the home.

The AirPlay story is embellished by their website and press release, and is the feature most relevant to wirelessaudioblog readers. Apple announced that AirPlay speakers and audio systems will soon be available from third-party manufacturers. iHome, Denon, Marantz, JBL, and Bowers & Wilkins are all now readying systems that will use AirPlay to receive audio from a user’s iTunes library, and when iOS 4.2 releases later this year, receive audio directly from many hundreds of millions of portable audio players. (!!!)

After working in the wireless audio category for 6 years, it’s gratifying to see the technology get situated for wide-spread adoption. The fact is, the Apple team is a band of user-experience aficionados, but as we all also know, they are commercially brilliant as well. So there is finally real hope that more people will realize some of the promises of wireless audio for multi-room home audio networking. By opening up AirPlay to third party accessory makers, Apple opens the door for more affordable, lifestyle focused product concepts to reach the masses. For product makers that have been wrestling with existing wireless audio technologies – home-grown wireless audio solutions (i.e. Logitech, Sonos), RF ASIC-based solutions from STS or Avnera (Klipsch, Panasonic, Sony, Best Buy) – AirPlay is offered as a technology solution that not only has Apple’s robust wireless audio protocol inside, but also the promise of Apple’s market-making, 3rd party developer support. The accompanying marketing platform is composed of strong messaging from Apple and a huge installed-base of complimentary AirPlay products, i.e. Apple’s iTunes, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch…

Readers of wirelessaudioblog know I work in product development now at iHome. One of our most exciting projects this year has been designing and developing our first AirPlay speaker. Apple’s technology enables us to deliver a product that is uniquely wireless, uniquely AirPlay, and particularly beneficial to existing iPod, iPhone, iPad customers, i.e. iTunes users. The iHome AirPlay wireless speaker will reach the market this holiday season, and it offers consumers the ability to send iTunes audio to any room of the house, multiple rooms of the house, and control it all with Apple’s Remote app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

I’m really excited to see AirPlay mature in this way, because it’s always been an impressive, promising take on wireless audio. Now Apple has put the full commitment of their third-party hardware developer support team behind it. This should keep things really interesting, and I’m actually really looking forward to see what other device-makers have planned.

There is now a centerpiece device for Best Buy’s Rocketboost wireless audio standard. This Insignia NS-R5101AHD-A is a pretty impressive home theater receiver with modern features such as:

• 3D pass-through
• 5.1 channel surround processing, Dolby, DTS, super plus happy technologies, yadda yadda yadda.
• Audyssey suite of dynamic EQ technologies
• 3 HDMI inputs
• 450 Watts of total output power

Add to that the Rocketboost features/capabilities that come via the included NS-RB1 transceiver:

• multi-room audio
• wireless surround sound speakers
• wireless subwoofer
• wireless zone-B audio
• wireless iPod dock receiver
• wireless headphones

…and you have one of the most capable home theater systems ever built. Of course you’ll have to pick up some of the existing or upcoming Rocketfish Rocketboost accessories to round out the scenarios you need.

Congrats to everyone who worked on bringing one of the most flexible and extensible wireless audio systems to market. I hope consumers find great uses for wireless audio. I know we spent a lot of time spec’ing these scenarios out at Avnera, and that team has continued to work hard to make all the user-scenarios possible by working with device makers applying Avnera’s highly integrated wireless audio ICs to build numerous affordable product choices.

Digging a little deeper into the photos at FCC and these do in fact look like Avnera board designs… very cool.

via DZLA00023 and DZLA00024

Logitech has begun taking pre-orders for their new Wireless Gaming Headset. Based on Avnera’s latest wireless headset chipset, and coupled with some cool innovations targeted at the PC gamer, these will prove to be immensely popular, as well as make a great follow-up to their omnipresent Clearchat PC Wireless set introduced a couple years ago.

It also marks the third company – Freetalk and Creative being the first and second, respectively – to launch a second wireless headset model based on Avnera’s solution. A great validation for the product concept, and the underlying technology enabling it.

It’s immensely gratifying for me, and I’m sure plenty of other early Avnerans, to see a new category of electronics mature based on the work of a startup company placing bets on an application all the way back in 2004. Sounds so long ago! This headset is based on the latest generation silicon from Avnera, and contains many new capabilities that make it more better.

Some of the nice features Logitech wrapped up into this US$159 piece include:

• Noise canceling mic with auto-mute
• Integrated charging cable, and charge-while using
• Some audio effects for virtual surround and voice morphing
• Programmable G-keys for mapping to specific game functions
• Laser tuned headphone drivers
• Memory foam headband
• 12-meter range
• Driver-less operation

Head over to Logitech’s website for more pretty pictures and feature overviews, and pre-order one now.

Good stuff!

Rocketboost has some FCC action going on. The new Rocketboost card has gained approval and will enable a range of Rocketboost-ready consumer electronics products, from flat-panel TVs, to Blu-ray players, to soundbars to support Best Buy’s “house” wireless audio standard.

Great to see some progress and I hope this means more 3rd parties will be getting their RB-ready gear on shelves soon.

via wirelessgoodness.com.

apt-X audio codec news – Apt-X.