Qualcomm brings Bluetooth streaming and new features to AllPlay

Qualcomm has announced that some new improvements are heading to its AllPlay WiFi streaming platform, promising Bluetooth support and a range of new options for manufacturers. If you haven’t heard of AllPlay before, it’s essentially a wireless audio streaming platform designed to ensure compatibility across a range of mobile and speaker products.

As for what’s new, Bluetooth and analog audio inputs are now supported. Furthermore, this means that a Bluetooth audio-stream can be distributed to other devices or speakers via WiFi, allowing for a wide range of products to be used in a single setup. In other words, you can stream audio from your smartphone to a Bluetooth compatible speaker, which will then re-stream the data to multiple WiFi compatible speakers, removing the Bluetooth restriction of one-to-one streaming. Pretty neat.

Qualcomm is also making new features available to hardware and software manufacturers, for consideration in future and existing products. AllPlay will now support manufacturer customizable equalization and channel select capabilities, synchronization between products can be made to take place in under 100 microseconds, and future AllPlay devices will be able to take line-in signals from external audio gear and stream the signal to other speakers via WiFi.

AsusTeK, Vestel and Magnat have all announced plans to introduce AllPlay products and Hitachi has announced three Wi-Fi AllPlay speakers which will enable users to stream from both local and cloud-based audio sources. The Hitachi speakers will be made available in the US later this month, but pricing has not been confirmed.

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Qualcomm Bolsters AllPlay Smart Media Platform with New Features for Streaming Music Wirelessly Throughout the Home

New features include Bluetooth® to Wi-Fi streaming, custom audio settings and optimized synchronization

SAN DIEGO and SAN FRANCISCO, May 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) has announced major feature additions to the Qualcomm® AllPlay™ smart media platform including Bluetooth® to Wi-Fi re-streaming, custom audio settings and optimized synchronization. Additionally, Hitachi America, Ltd. today announced the launch of three Wi-Fi speakers powered by AllPlay.

AllPlay provides consumers with multiple streaming options, including a new feature to combine both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi whole home streaming. Now, all local or cloud-based music on a consumer’s smartphone can be streamed to any Bluetooth-compatible AllPlay speaker and then re-streamed over Wi-Fi to multiple AllPlay speakers, all in synch. This allows simple wireless connectivity to individual speakers or an entire home audio system over the user’s existing home Wi-Fi network. This functionality provides a distinct advantage over Bluetooth-only speakers, which are limited to one-to-one streaming.

The Hitachi Wi-Fi speakers offer seamless streaming of high-quality local and cloud-based audio content – with the high performance and versatility of Wi-Fi and the convenience of Bluetooth. They will be available nationwide at a US retailer later this month at three affordable price points.

“Our adoption of the Qualcomm AllPlay platform for our networked audio portfolio further showcases our commitment to bringing consumers products with truly exceptional sound quality, reliability and ease-of-use in the wireless whole-home audio category,” said Bill Whalen, Director Product Development, Hitachi America, Ltd., Digital Media Division. “We’re dedicated to providing consumers with easy to use, high-quality audio products – and the AllPlay platform allows us to do just that.”

“The range and capacity of Wi-Fi coupled with the ubiquity of Bluetooth is a game-changing combination for manufacturers and consumers alike,” said Sy Choudhury, senior director of product management, Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc. “AllPlay device manufacturers like Hitachi and Monster, which introduced its SoundStage line of AllPlay-powered speakers at Best Buy last month, can now offer their customers more connectivity options and access to myriad streaming services throughout their home with this new capability.”

Additional features available for manufactures to evaluate later this month are:

Custom Audio Settings: Manufactures now have more ways to differentiate their products and provide their customers with greater control over their wireless music experiences with custom sound equalization settings and channel selection capabilities.
Optimized Synchronization: To meet the performance demands for true stereo and multi-channel wireless audio in the home, AllPlay now supports synchronization between devices of under 100 microseconds, making the platform suitable for both multi-room and multi-channel wireless audio streaming.
Line-in to Wi-Fi Re-streaming: Manufacturers can now build devices powered by AllPlay that take in audio from line-in sources, such as CD players or turntables, with the ability to re-stream to other AllPlay speakers around the home.

In addition to the platform advances, even more audio equipment manufacturers have announced plans to introduce AllPlay products, including ASUSTeK, Vestel and Magnat.

The AllPlay platform is built upon the AllJoyn® software framework, an open source software and services framework and collaborative open source project of the AllSeen Alliance. AllJoyn enables hardware manufacturers and software developers to create interoperable products that can discover, connect and communicate directly with other AllJoyn-enabled products.

For more information on AllPlay please visit www.qualcomm.com/allplay.

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