CSR has announced that Clarion, a mobile audio electronics manufacturer, has selected to include CSR’s aptX audio codec, along with CSR connectivity devices, in three of its latest marine entertainment products. Featured in Clarion’s newest marine source unit, the M704, and the award-winning CMS5 and CMS2 all-in-one digital media receivers, CSR’s aptX technology ensures CD-like wireless audio quality in boats and vehicles alike.
Clarion joins a number of car makers and other Tier One mobile electronics suppliers that have adopted aptX to enhance the performance of in-vehicle entertainment systems. This collaboration further demonstrates the value of the technology in future vehicle designs across various industries.
“Bluetooth, as an audio delivery solution, has become significantly more important to consumers as their dependency on mobile devices continues to grow,” said Allen H. Gharapetian, vice president of marketing and product planning for Clarion Corporation of America. “We all prefer to stream content without compromising audio quality so, if there is a possibility to do so, anything less than CD-like audio is not an option. aptX guarantees high fidelity stereo audio over Bluetooth connections and offers widespread smartphone integration making it the natural choice for ensuring interoperability with many handsets on the market such as Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One and Sony Xperia Z1.”
As Bluetooth takes on a more important and prevalent role in delivering in-vehicle audio, many manufacturers find it challenging to offer the best possible audio experience if they rely solely on the current Bluetooth standard codec. The pioneering aptX codec is currently the only solution on the market to offer high-quality and low-latency wireless audio to the entertainment system designers and the automotive industry is beginning to take note as more and more upcoming designs are integrating CSR’s aptX.
“With widespread adoption of aptX technology in smartphones, we are seeing in-vehicle system suppliers, like Clarion, recognising the positive impact this technology is having on the consumer listening experience,” says Anthony Murray, senior vice president, business group at CSR. “We want to ensure manufacturers implementing this technology can future-proof their products and aptX’s compatibility with a wide range of smartphones on the market makes meeting this requirement achievable. This partnership demonstrates our continued commitment to help our customers create new ways to offer an immersive in-vehicle infotainment environment that will ultimately transform the driving experience.”
In order to fit within the Bluetooth ‘pipe’ and transmit wirelessly, audio needs to use a bit rate reduction technique. CSR’s aptX audio technology uses a non-destructive solution to ensure the audio is transmitted over Bluetooth’s available bandwidth. It replicates the entire frequency of the audio, maintaining CD-like audio over the Bluetooth connection and ensures that users can hear everything as the artist originally intended.
CSR is offering aptX support in all of its latest connectivity devices including the CSR8350 and CSRC9300, to support the expansion of the aptX ecosystem in the vehicle. The BlueCore5 MM chip is another example of a fully AEC-Q100 device which can support aptX streaming in the cars of the future.
