NEWSLETTER PARROT, May 2006

AUDIO STREAMING: Wireless HiFi

After the telephone, now music is going wireless. With Bluetooth® technology you can listen to MP3 tracks with complete freedom, both in your car and at home.

It is always a magic moment! You play an MP3 track on your mobile phone and somewhat surprisingly you hear it remotely on a car radio or a pair of speakers. This achievement is explained by the Bluetooth A2DP Profile (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) that allows transmission of a continuous audio signal from a source (mobile phone, PC, PDA, MP3 Walkman...). This profile is also called "Bluetooth Stereo". Until now limited to demonstrations at trade shows, the audio streaming function is now a business reality. Parrot offers it in the framework of the Parrot SOUND SYSTEM: Bluetooth Hi-Fi speakers. In practical terms, you merely have to connect your mobile phone, PC or MP3 Walkman to the Parrot SOUND SYSTEM. When you play an MP3 file, one of the speakers receives the audio signal, and sends it to the other speaker, so that you hear the music in stereo. These Bluetooth speakers are a first on the market.

 

No loss of quality

 

You might expect loss of sound quality in the wireless transfer of an MP3 track from a mobile phone to a car radio.

Not at all. The Bluetooth Stereo Profile transfers the MP3 file in its entirety and the musical characteristics are unchanged. In any case, we will have to get used to listening to music in a different way. This phenomenon seems to have taken hold, judging by the number of wireless headsets exhibited recently at the 3GSM in Barcelona or the CeBIT in Hanover. We are also witnessing the appearance of portals such as Visual Radio or iRadio (with Motorola), which broadcast FM band or catalogue music by Internet. The age of wireless media has arrived, all the more so with the Bluetooth technology and wireless connectivity.

 

The Automotive Sector Looks to the A2DP Profile

The automotive sector is also taking an interest in this function. Audi has already announced that its new SUV, the Q7, will offer audio streaming. Orange is preparing to release a limited series in France.

For its part, Parrot has advanced projects with a manufacturer and a large equipment supplier. Incidentally, it is worth noting that Parrot Bluetooth chips can be inserted in CarPC type modules, so that both multimedia functions and wireless connectivity can be offered (voice, music with A2DP Profile). This concept was presented at the last Las Vegas CES, in association with Intel and MP3Car.com. The possibility of wireless transfer of music on the audio system, from a mobile phone and MP3 players simplifies the process for the manufacturers. The car industry is just beginning to incorporate USB ports, memory card reader slots (1.9 million units planned in 2006, 45 million by 2012 according to Strategy Analytics), while there are already over two hundred million Bluetooth devices in circulation in the world and the amounts are set to increase.

 

Parrot is going to be a major player in audio streaming

Is 2006 the year of wireless music?
Certainly, in the opinion of Parrot CEO, Henri Seydoux.
"We have been working on this function for two years. It is very clearly a convergence tool between the worlds of telephone, computer and MP3 music. Audio streaming is an excellent function for a telephone and laptops. Today, more and more people have music on their PC or laptop… With the Parrot SOUND SYSTEM, you can say goodbye to cables when you listen to hi-fi music in your home. In the car sector, it will also be a "killer application". Car radio with an audio streaming function is far more modern than using a USB port or a wire connection with an MP3 player. We are working on it with our car manufacturer partners. Parrot is going to be one of the benchmark players in this nascent market…"

Stereo on your Motorcycle

 

Audio streaming already exists in the world on two wheels. Indeed, BMW offers with its motorcycles a Bluetooth kit (WCS-1) developed by Parrot and Garmin that supports the A2DP Profile, so that you can listen to music directly from an MP3 player with the sound relayed to your headset. If you want, you can hear GPS instructions (Garmin system) with the same kit and take a call hands-free. The system functions at up to 150 km/h.

 

Nicolas Besnard, R&D Director,
and Jens-Uwe Soehner,
director for new products at Parrot.

What exactly is the A2DP Profile?

"It is a function that, in the framework of Bluetooth, allows wireless transfer of an audio signal from a mobile phone or another compatible peripheral device. It functions with Bluetooth version 1.2 or 2.0. We are already offering Bluetooth Stereo technology on the Parrot SOUND SYSTEM. Currently , it functions with MP3 and EBC files, the formats supported by Bluetooth. However, the system is compatible with all your PC audio files; the PC stacks transcode the sound to EBC format before sending it to the speakers. In this way, you can listen to your music from iTunes and from all the PC players on our speakers. On the Parrot SOUND SYSTEM, the Bluetooth link is permanent between the two speakers. This is what makes our system unique. The Bluetooth Stereo Profile is as stable as voice-oriented profiles. Consequently, there is no particular problem as regards performance. However, it is not yet possible to transfer the name of the artist and of the track being performed together with the sound."

 

Is this the year of Bluetooth Stereo?

"Currently, there are still few telephones compatible with the A2DP Profile. However, according to the information at our disposal, the offer will increase considerably during the second half of the year. The leading brand names, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Samsung, have announced numerous telephone models incorporating audio streaming. MP3 music storage is also set to develop. This is a feature highly appreciated by customers and we hear of storage capacities of up to 10 GB on mobile phones. This means, of course, that you can listen to music on your mobile phone; all the new uses will appear to relay the music to wireless headphones or to speakers in your home. Clearly, music is becoming wireless and there is no going back."