Market, Technology, and Trends for Soundbars in Perspective

Market research firm SAR Insight and Consulting updated its available analysis on one of the most important speaker form-factors currently in the audio and home entertainment industry. In the company's latest report on soundbars, the company details the technology trends, market growth and competitive analysis in the category. As manufacturers continue to expand the features, consumers also seem to have greater appreciation for soundbars.

STMicroelectronics has released an Amazon-qualified reference design package for smart connected devices leveraging Amazon AVS voice integration, which can be used to create Alexa Built-in products using simple microcontrollers (MCUs). The new reference design eases development of natural-language understanding and voice-based user interaction for smart-home devices and smart appliances, featuring an improved audio front end created with DSP Concepts for far-field audio detection.

Altice USA, the American arm of the French telecommunications conglomerate, unveiled Altice Amplify, an Alexa-powered smart speaker developed in collaboration with French connected-speaker pioneers Devialet. Directly targeted at the booming North-America smart speaker market, the Altice Amplify introduces "an intelligent, high-fidelity home speaker that powers the connected home." Of course, Altice didn't discard the audio quality argument and worked with Devialet to design a true high-fidelity system.