BLE2AV

Older technology, limited applications

Nearly every wireless speaker or headset sold today includes a Bluetooth (BT) chip. However, most of them are based on older technology which causes both transmitter (smartphone) and receiver (e.g. earbuds) to consume too much power.  This leads to limited listening times, limitations in scalability and suboptimal audio quality. Even more, classic BT technology supports only a single stream, making it non-interoperable and limiting its use to very basic applications.

Surpassing the state of the art in audio processing

In 2020, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group announced the introduction of a new wave of audio technologies as part of v5.2 that unlock multiple synchronous streams. In addition, after twenty years of using more or less the same technology, the new version contains a brand new generation of audio codec. These new features enable multi-stream audio, audio sharing, power control and other groundbreaking functionalities. However, the rich and diverse real-life application of these audio technologies remain unknown, requiring research into networking and audio/voice processing that goes beyond the state of the art.

Testing the real-life capabilities of the newest BT technologies

The BLE2AV consortium has outlined several research goals and outcomes:

• gaining an in-depth understanding of LE Audio, including a test framework and insights into limitations;
• creating an LE Audio stack for many-to-many streaming that is location-aware, self-configurable and offers enhanced voice capturing and playback;
• developing a proof of concept based on the above for a new generation of language distribution and discussion systems that can interoperate with hearing implants.

Next-gen wireless sound and hearing implants

These research outcomes, insights and solutions will pave the way for the development of new and more cost-effective wireless sound technologies with rich functionality, as well as high-quality, easy-to-use implantable hearing systems.

“BLEA2AV will realize advanced, interoperable audio and voice solutions based on low-energy technology for conferencing systems and hearing implants. These will offer key features such as bidirectional many-to-many audio and voice streaming, location awareness, self-configuration and excellent quality audio and voice capturing.”