A new generation of Wireless multiroom speaker systems incorporating Qualcomm’s AllPlay technology are expected to appear in Australian stores in the last quarter of 2014.
Among the brands who are set to deliver new hardware devices are Panasonic, Pioneer, Sony and Swiss Company Lenco.
Panasonic showed AllPlay-equipped speakers at the 2014 CES but hasn’t announced ship dates, they did however reveal their multiroom speaker systems at an event in Sydney earlier this month.
Altec Lansing said it plans to range new Qualcomm powered speakers.
AllPlay, which uses Wi-Fi and supports high-resolution audio codecs, is promoted as offering advantages over Apple’s AirPlay and DLNA.
Qualcomm also positions its solution as an alternative to single-brand proprietary solutions, enabling consumers to buy compatible products from multiple brands.
The AllPlay platform provides a “turnkey solution for cross-platform interoperability,” said Gary Brotman, product management director for Qualcomm’s connected experience group. AllPlay speakers will network with LG TVs incorporating Qualcomm’s related AllJoyn network technology, enabling the TVs to display metadata of songs playing on devices running the Qualcomm chipsets.
Several of the new speakers will feature Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi direct, Ethernet port and Bluetooth. With AllPlay systems,
Apple or Android mobile devices will be able to stream one or more locally stored songs to one or more speakers at a time.
The apps also double as a controller to direct one or more songs at a time from a DLNA-enabled PC or NAS drive to one or more speakers at a time. AllPlay supports synchronous streaming of music to up to 10 zones. AllPlay-compatible music-service apps will display an AllPlay icon when they detect AllPlay-enabled speakers and music systems on a Wi-Fi network.
From the compatible music-service app, users will then be able to select the speakers to which they want to send Cloud-based music. Music from multiple streaming apps running simultaneously on one mobile device can be directed to different speakers simultaneously. For streaming services, the ability to incorporate AllPlay support in their native apps offers multiple advantages to consumers, Brotman said. A music-service’s native app offers a richer experience compared to other-brand music-management apps that access multiple services, he explained.
