CSR Previews Wireless Audio Platform For Sound Bar Market At CES 2013

The design achieves substantial competitive advantages by offering all the platform components – CSR MAPX audio SoC, Bluetooth wireless SoC and sophisticated integrated system software – from a single source, and signals the company’s move to capture the nascent sound bar market.

“With our family of pin and software-compatible MAPX multimedia application processors, OEMs will be able to leverage common solution platforms to develop a variety of sound bar products and bring them to market faster and with lower risk,” said Anthony Murray, SVP Business Group at CSR. “CSR is a leader in the industry with a fully integrated hardware and software sound bar solution that gives customers extensive control over the audio processing chain, Bluetooth streaming, user interface and audio I/O routing without them having to undertake a substantial software development effort, allowing them to deliver quite complex, highly differentiated sound bar products readily and quickly.”

According to a recent report from Portland, Oregon-based Quixel Research, sound bars are one of the bright spots in the home entertainment market, racking up Q2 2012 U.S. sales of $200 million, 75 percent above 1Q2012 sales and more than doubling year over year.

The invitation-only demonstration at the CES 2013 show will highlight how the highly integrated MAPX 7-series media application processor and CSR8600 Bluetooth audio platform can be combined to create a 2.1 channel sound bar home audio system that provides standard-definition audio decoding and processing for HDMI sources, in addition to wireless high-fidelity audio streaming over Bluetooth using the CSR aptX audio codec when connected to smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

The CSR sound bar platform being demonstrated is the first to provide all the wireless connectivity from a single chip, employing a CSR8600 family Bluetooth device to not only allow smartphones, tablets and other Bluetooth enabled devices to stream high-quality audio wirelessly to the sound bar, but also to simultaneously provide low-latency wireless connectivity for the remote subwoofer. This eliminates the need for an additional proprietary radio module, antenna and other components traditionally used in the sound bar for the subwoofer channel, significantly reducing complexity and the potential for interference between the two radios, while also optimising costs. Further, Bluetooth Smart Ready capabilities provided by the CSR8600 Bluetooth audio platform allows the use of point-anywhere wireless remote controls, as well as mobile device apps for controlling the sound bar and providing the best user experience.

The MAPX 7-series device used in the demo includes three powerful 32-bit DSP cores and supports Dolby and DTS decoding as well as Dolby and SRS post-processing algorithms, and also supports CSR meloD audio post-processing algorithms that deliver high performance in cost sensitive applications. The MAPX device integrates the typical analogue and digital audio interfaces needed for sound bar applications as well as direct connectivity support for coaxial digital audio. The integrated pulse-width modulation converter can directly drive the PWM amplifier typically found in a sound bar.

The MAPX family includes seven variants in two packages, and variants in the same package are pin compatible with each other. All MAPX variants are software compatible with each other, making it easy for developers to save development time and cost when creating a number of low-end to high-end products simply by swapping processors without the need to change the PCB. For example, swapping a 7-Series to an 8-Series MAPX SoC upgrades from standard definition Dolby Digital or DTS to Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD decoding capabilities, as well as enabling streaming from Internet services such as vTuner or from PCs and personal media servers over a home network via DLNA.

The CSR MAPX and CSR8600 processor families are part of the CSR audio platform, a collection of complete end-to-end home audio solutions. CSR offers numerous wireless connectivity and audio decoding and processing solutions for the home audio market, including Bluetooth, Bluetooth Smart and Wi-Fi connectivity, CSR aptX audio codecs, CSR MAPX high-definition audio decoding and high-quality, multi-channel DDFA direct digital feedback amplifiers.

CSR will be demonstrating the wireless sound bar platform by invitation only during the International CES 2013 show in room 907, SpringHill Suites by Marriot, Las Vegas Convention Center, January 8-11. Attendees wishing to view the private demonstration should contact CSR for an invitation.