Qualcomm Expands AllPlay Streaming Audio with SDK Availability

September 29 2014, 09:00
Qualcomm Connected Experiences, a subsidiary of Qualcomm, has announced the general availability of its AllPlay Click Software Development Kit (SDK). Furthermore, several major hardware and content providers have announced launches relating to the Qualcomm AllPlay smart media platform.

The AllPlay ecosystem allows manufacturers to develop and offer consumers the seamless streaming of high-quality local and cloud-based content with high performance Wi-Fi connectivity, including support for Spotify Connect. A broad array of audio equipment manufacturers, networking companies and streaming music services have AllPlay products or services available today or have announced plans to release them this year – including Monster, FON, Astro Player, Digital Audio Recording FM (DAR FM), RecoChoku, Style Jukebox, Wahwah, WiMP and Qualcomm AllPlay Radio powered by TuneIn.

“It is our goal to continue to bring interoperability and choice not only to our consumers, but also to other leaders in the audio industry,” said Rob Chandhok, President of Qualcomm Connected Experiences. “We have set out to expand our media platform so that as many developers and brands as possible can participate in this ecosystem. This not only drives the audio industry forward, but continues to provide the choice and flexibility consumers are looking for.”

Specifically, Qualcomm Connected Experiences has unveiled the results of collaborations with several manufacturers and developers on new AllPlay-related hardware and services. New to the AllPlay hardware ecosystem are Monster, with the release of their SoundStage wireless speaker line, and FON, owner of the world’s largest Wi-Fi network, which have announced that they will be adding AllPlay capability to their Gramofon cloud jukebox later this year.

“The interoperability provided by Qualcomm AllPlay to companies like Monster allows us to work together to continue to evolve and redefine the industry through products such as their SoundStage system,” says Rob Chandhok, President of Qualcomm Connected Experiences. “By integrating AllPlay into its SoundStage system, Monster will be able to provide the high quality seamless streaming experience we know Monster fans are seeking.”

As Noel Lee, Monster’s CEO explains: “At Monster our engineers are committed to creating innovative products that redefine categories and to work with the most advanced technologies and companies to bring the best experience to our customers. With SoundStage Monster, we wanted to bring an easy to use wireless streaming music experience and the AllPlay platform allows us to deliver that differentiated experience. We chose the name 'SoundStage' because that is exactly what it does – it creates an ideal soundstage for your music, whether you're streaming from your phone to the single speaker in a room or to multiple rooms around the house, the SoundStage provides incredible sound with plug and play simplicity. The SoundStage system is quite simply whole home wireless home audio re-defined. You can now enjoy the sound of live music in your home, without any wires, fuss or setup anxiety. Best of all, SoundStage is so simple to set up and use that nothing gets between you and the music you love!”

A variety of popular music streaming services are also joining the AllPlay ecosystem. AllPlay is now Spotify Connect certified, and Spotify users with compatible AllPlay-enabled products can now enjoy this streaming media service in “party mode,” sending music to several speakers in the home, instead of only one set.

The Qualcomm AllPlay Radio powered by TuneIn app has launched, enabling users to experience over 100,000 live radio stations streaming from around the world, and over four million podcasts on AllPlay powered devices. Additional services including Astro Player, Digital Audio Recording FM (DAR FM), RecoChoku, Style Jukebox, Wahwah and WiMP are enabling their applications to also stream to AllPlay enabled products.  

The AllPlay Click SDK is now publicly available to music service and media player application developers, allowing the broader app community to participate and stream from the apps these developers and music services create to one or many AllPlay-enabled devices, opening up the door for anyone to be able to participate natively in the AllPlay ecosystem.

“Our collaboration with Qualcomm Connected Experiences brings our home audio experience to even more music fans through a wide range of major device manufacturers,” said Sten Garmark, VP of Product at Spotify. “What’s more, the AllPlay platform lets device manufacturers create products that support Spotify Connect with party mode, allowing Spotify Premium users to stream directly to one or more speakers, seamlessly controlled from the Spotify applications.”

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.
www.qualcomm.com/allplay
allseenalliance.org
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