Bluetooth SIG Announces LC3 Codec, Support for Hearing Aids, and Multi-Stream Audio

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is finally stepping up the capabilities of Bluetooth technology. A few days back atCES 2020, they announced new features for Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) devices including improvements in audio output, multi-stream audio, audio sharing, and support for hearing aids.

Bluetooth audio will soon support two operation modes namely Classic Audio and LE Audio. Classic Audio will operate on Bluetooth Classic radio while LE Audio will operate on the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) radio.

LE Audio introduces a new codec namedLow Complexity Communications Codecor LC3 in short. Bluetooth SIG claims thatLC3 offers better audio quality when compared to SBC codec even at a 50% lower bit rate, which is incredible. This way, we could be getting Bluetooth devices that would essentially last noticeably longer than the current offerings.Credits: Bluetooth SIG

“Developers will be able to leverage this power savings to create products that can provide longer battery life or, in cases where current battery life is enough, reduce the form factor by using a smaller battery.”,says Manfred Lutzky, Head of Audio for Communications at Fraunhofer IIS.

With multi-stream audio technology, you will be finally able to play audio from a single source to multiple Bluetooth devices. A similar feature is available already in Samsung devices calledDual Audiofor two connected devices.

Bluetooth SIG promises location-based broadcast audio sharing so that you canshare Bluetooth audio to nearby devices in a public venue. Imagine entering a gym and being treated with some upbeat workout music on your earbuds without even pulling your phone out. Cool, right? We will be testing this out once it comes later this year to see if this feature is as efficient as it sounds like.

Subin B

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.

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