Three-Dimensional Sound Field from a Portable, One-Box Speaker – Cear pavé
Portable speakers have been overdue for technical advancement. Most products include a speaker, an amplifier and a Bluetooth receiver inside a box that fits in your hand. They play audio, but not spatial audio. The sound can lack acoustic quality and richness.
Cear is changing that with the advent of Cear pavé, a palm-sized cube that delivers 3D sound. Cear pavé is built around the Qualcomm QCC5181 single-chip audio platform and supports Snapdragon Sound technology.
The challenge with small speakers
Cear, Inc. is a Tokyo-based company that creates products around acoustic signal processing and offers technical support and licensing to audio manufacturers. As a member of the Qualcomm Voice & Music Extension Program in the Qualcomm Advantage Network (QAN), Cear watched the evolution of Snapdragon Sound and became inspired by it. They followed the emergence of new Bluetooth audio technologies, especially the advancement of Qualcomm aptX Adaptive and Qualcomm’s support for the LE Audio Bluetooth standard.
Cear wanted to address an acoustic problem that increases as the size of portable speakers decreases: the frequency characteristics of a portable speaker change just by shifting its placement. Therefore, to get the most enjoyment, listeners have to move around until they are in the speaker’s acoustic “sweet spot,” where the frequency characteristics are optimal. Cear saw a market need for a product that could improve sound quality and dimension, even in small speakers, by taking the sweet spot to the listener.
Acoustic software plus Qualcomm’s innovations
Cear had already developed Cear Field, a proprietary algorithm for controlling the field of sound. Cear Field provides an expansive, three-dimensional sound field that goes far beyond the visible world in front of the listener. It uses spatial control and sound separation to reproduce audio with a realistic feel.
Cear Field consists of two main technologies:
- Real-time analysis of audio signals. This focuses on factors like phase differences and amplitude variations between the channels to separate and construct sound sources in a clear form.
- Crosstalk cancellation. In case of loudspeakers, sound from the left speaker reaches not only the left ear, but also the right ear and vice versa (crosstalk). The desired sound is accurately delivered to both ears with high-precision cancellation filter.
In developing a hardware product they could market for small, portable speakers, Cear examined the QCC5181 Bluetooth Audio platform. The team determined that the powerful QCC5181 could run their acoustic signal processing and support Cear Field. Plus, its support for Snapdragon Sound meant they could use audio codecs and technologies like aptX Adaptive Audio, aptX Lossless Technology, LE Audio and aptX Voice Audio for higher-quality sound and real-time performance.
Leading to Cear pavé
The company’s development effort on Cear pavé ran the gamut from essential product planning, speaker enclosure design and acoustic signal processing to firmware development.
Initially, they worked with a QCC5181 evaluation board. Their priorities were to port Cear Field to the QCC5181 and improve acoustic signal processing. They developed new surround technologies to introduce dynamic range control and provide a sense of expansiveness even with small speakers. Cear engineers have worked to incorporate the most recent version of the Qualcomm Audio Development Kit. The product of Cear pavé they intend to ship early in 2024 will be compatible with LE Audio, enabling advantages like multi-device connectivity and extended battery life.
The resulting product is a compact, one-box speaker that makes full use of Cear Field to deliver high-quality acoustic experiences anywhere. Cear CEO Yoshitaka Murayama says, “We have been amazed and inspired by new experiences, such as Bluetooth lossless transmission in Snapdragon Sound and Qualcomm Technologies’ unique, low-latency LE Audio implementation. We find our creations continually inspiring, leaving solid impressions with customers and prospects.”
Murayama sees a clear path to ongoing work with Qualcomm Technologies’ audio technologies. “Qualcomm S7 Sound platform was announced at the Snapdragon Summit recently,” he says. “We look forward to building a more refined sound world integrated with network technologies, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. We plan to continue product and software development for recording and reproducing compelling sound fields.”
Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm Voice and Music Extension and Qualcomm Advantage Network are programs of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.
