Netgear Debuts Orbi Voice Mesh WiFi System Combined with a Smart Speaker Designed by Harman Kardon

At IFA 2018 there have been multiple announcements of smart speakers coming from Harman, mostly involving collaborations with other brands and retailers. One of the most interesting ones is the Netgear Orbi Voice, a mesh WiFi system combined with a smart speaker with Alexa built-In and audio by Harman Kardon. The concept allows users to use voice to play music and control smart home devices while enjoying Wi-Fi everywhere with the Orbi Voice WiFi System.

Bose announced what it claims to be "the next chapter" in the company's "legendary home audio history" with the introduction of a new wireless smart speaker and two new smart soundbars — the Bose Home Speaker 500 for music, and the Bose Soundbar 700 and Soundbar 500 for music and home theater. Each model combines size-defying performance with superior voice pickup and the power of Amazon Alexa now, other voice assistants to follow, and AirPlay 2 for simple streaming from Apple devices added in early 2019.

The Consumer Electronics (CE) team at Futuresource Consulting just unveiled some of the main trends included in the company's latest Home Audio Market Report, confirming that the global home audio market already broke the $13 billion barrier in 2017. According to the report, the global home audio market continues to climb, with hardware shipments increasing by 23% in 2017, and new emerging product categories likes wireless speakers and soundbars continuing to propel the business.

Apple has confirmed that its latest mobile operating system iOS 11.4 is now available introducing the much anticipated AirPlay 2 updated technology, which enables Apple's own smart speaker to be configured as stereo pairs and to work in multi-room mode. AirPlay 2 will be also supported by several other audio manufacturers. Apple also confirmed that HomePod will be available in Canada, France and Germany, starting June 18.

LG Electronics (LG) and Meridian Audio have announced a partnership on the development of new consumer audio products. The first results of the partnership will be presented at CES 2018, and include a Dolby Atmos soundbar, portable speakers, and the LG ThinQ smart speaker, featuring Google Assistant voice recognition. LG wants to combine its consumer electronics expertise with Meridian’s audio technologies to deliver "high-performance audio to more people across the world."

Like every year at this time, the world of telecom and mobile descends upon cosmopolitan Barcelona for another edition of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) promoted by the GSM Association (GSMA). As we have noted before, MWC is becoming a larger forum for cutting-edge audio technologies than other industry events: anything that's wireless audio, wearables, and IoT, and even small dedicated audio technology providers have taken notice and are attending in full force.