On November 26, the AAC Audio Seminar 2021 themed “Shining with New Sound” was held in Shenzhen. At the seminar, AAC debuted its master SLS speakers, shared its audio solutions for multiple applications including smartphones, automobiles, wearable devices and laptops, and discussed current acoustic innovations with leading-edge technology companies in the field of acoustics, such as DTS and Awinic Electronics, as well as content ecological enterprises, such as Tencent Games.
Daniel Jansson, Marketing Director of AAC, said in his opening speech that it was an honor to bring friends, partners and customers together to share and exchange ideas today as AAC held its first dedicated acoustic seminar. AAC strives to bring the best audio experience to customers by being innovation-oriented and customer-focused.
Navigating change with change｜From the Internet to the metaverse
Meng Yiming, General Manager of AAC’s Acoustic Solutions Division, gave a speech on trends and innovations in mobile audio development. He pointed out that in scenarios such as short videos, games and music, diverse content models have created new experience needs and users are increasingly demanding better sound. As the metaverse gradually takes shape, the ability to deliver a more immersive sound experience is a common challenge for all acoustic technologies, mobile devices and companies in the content ecosystem. Meng Yiming emphasized that, as a leading global smart device solution provider, AAC has always been committed to providing comprehensive solutions for the industry covering three areas: software, hardware and services, to create a more convenient and better sound experience for users.
Hong Kai, Director of Technical Operations of Tencent Games, explained the critical role of audio design in the immersive experience of game players and shared the efforts made and valuable experience gained by Tencent Games in content for this purpose.
Good audio design requires good hardware and targeted optimization of drivers. As a system engineer, game audio design also calls for the collaboration and innovation of the entire content and audio industry chain. Regarding the future of game audio design, he believes that cloud gaming and the metaverse are important directions for the development of games. The future landscape of gameplay will make players more demanding in terms of audio and haptic feedback, posing more opportunities and challenges for the gaming content and hardware industries.
More immersive sound – Technological innovation delivers the ultimate sound experience
“Traditional mobile speakers are struggling to meet the requirements of immersion and spatial sense of the current users of mobile content due to insufficient energy density. The acoustic development trend of smartphones will gradually evolve from the traditional single speaker to a multi-band speaker surround sound system solution in the next five years”, shared Huang Xingzhi, General Manager of AAC’s Acoustic Electromagnetic Products Division, who also unveiled AAC’s master SLS speaker that feature a small cavity and large amplitude characteristics.
This master loudspeaker overturns the traditional internal magnetic circuit system architecture, and the high energy density technology enables it to tap into ultimate vibration in limited space, bringing a sound experience unmatched by traditional speakers. Combined with AME’s all-metal packaging technology, the SLS Master Box is 50% smaller than other similar products and offers the same performance, allowing for effective stacking of space savings. In terms of sound, this speaker has a maximum amplitude of 0.65mm, more than 85% higher than conventional speakers of the same size, and a low-frequency loudness more than 100% higher than conventional speakers of the same size. Larger amplitude and louder volume ensure less distortion and more dynamic sound.
DTS has been working in the audio field for decades and Zhao Yan, Business Director, shared DTS’ technologies in cinema and home audiovisual entertainment and his personal insights. DTS:X audio technology, based on sound objects, brings the ultimate 3D immersive audio experience to users in the cinema and at the home. Meanwhile, DTS Play-Fi technology, with its wireless surround, lossless audio transmission and multi-room and multi-user support, leads the way to a new experience in house-wide home entertainment. DTS upholds the concept of innovation and makes every effort to create future-oriented technology solutions to offer users a more vivid perceptual experience.
Sounding great – Prospects for audio upgrading of smart hardware
In terms of upgrading the audio experience of smart hardware, Zhang Xin, head of multimedia acoustic solutions development at AAC, shared her insights with the attendees. AAC presented targeted trend forecasts and solutions for different hardware devices based on their different usage scenarios. For example, for sound needs of full-screen, ultra-thin, home audio TVs, AAC proposed the ultra-thin TV acoustic solution: The entire speaker system is only 15mm thick, and features non-linear distortion compensation, bass enhancement, speaker array control algorithms and more. Debugged and optimized by the “Golden Ear” professional team, the system creates multi-scene home theater sound. In response to the pain point of poor bass performance and distortion in semi-in-ear headphones, AAC developed the industry-leading Φ13 headphone core solution with NLC and EQ algorithms. Optimized by multi-level volume debugging, it ensures comfortable wearing while providing surging bass comparable to in-ear headphones. Meanwhile, the exclusive pioneering MEMS+ dynamic headphone core module with a thinner size opens up new paths for the industry.
Awinic Electronics and AAC have cooperated since long ago. This time, Lv Yang, Senior Product Manager of Awinic, also shared his thoughts on the application and future layout of Awinic’s current audio offerings. After 13 years of sustained efforts, Awinic’s audio amplifiers have formed a structure of algorithms along with analogue amplifiers and digital amplifiers. At present, the audio amplifiers have been widely used in smartphones, smart wearables, smart speakers, smart life, smart security, smart healthcare, connected education, gaming, wireless payments, smart travel, smart industry and other fields. In the future, more areas will be developed.
Harnessing sound while driving – AAC’s intelligent solutions for vehicle audio
As the third space for modern people besides their homes and offices, the car, with its semi-private and fun-to-drive nature, has become a key living space for today’s people. Sun Shuyuan, AAC’s Director of Acoustic Solutions Development, pointed out that current vehicle audio solutions are heavy and large, but do not provide enough bass. In light of the user’s pain points, AAC has developed a systematic intelligent cockpit immersive audio solution. The miniaturized and lightweight high energy density speaker module is 50% smaller than full-range speakers, and is paired with an underlying optimization algorithm, sound field reproduction algorithm and functional algorithm to maximize device performance. In particular, AAC’s original low-level optimization algorithm is capable of maximizing fidelity through non-linear distortion compensation, transient distortion compensation, phase correction and more. In this way, AAC provides both the driver and passenger with a three-dimensional immersive audio experience relying on hardware technology and software algorithms.
Acoustic customization – Upgraded software algorithms and debugging services
Wang Hongxing, Director of Acoustic Solutions Planning at AAC, briefed the audience on the improvements to the user experience made by AAC’s algorithms. For example, through sophisticated computational acoustics, AAC has solved the problem of high distortion in micro speakers with large amplitude. The enhanced sound after applying computational acoustics technology was displayed on the site, demonstrating the high-fidelity experience. Wang Hongxing shared that AAC is also committed to providing professional debugging services and tapping into the potential of the audio system based on the Golden Ear team and scientific evaluation system. The pursuit of the ultimate sound experience, combined with comprehensive software algorithms and service upgrades, is the soft power that enables AAC to “tailor the sound” for the industry.
In addition to the in-depth sharing, the seminar also featured a multi-terminal acoustic system solutions exhibit for smartphones, glasses, TWS, PCs, tablets, TVs and vehicles. Attendees rushed to experience the rich acoustic devices brought by AAC, resulting in a vibrant scene. The pleasant and surging sound experience was well received.
An official at AAC said that as an even more intelligent and immersive sound era develops, AAC will strive to provide users with a better acoustic experience in smart devices such as mobile phones and other applications such as the automotive field, relying on its global leading acoustic technology.