*This article is a Japanese translation by Macnica of a blog written by an engineer at DSP Concepts.

In the rapidly evolving home audio market of soundbars and other speaker products, the requirement to produce the latest audio technology and feature-rich, fast-to-market devices for OEMs and ODMs is only being made possible by partnerships with independent software engineering companies and technology providers.

The process of building such a product with extensive digital signal processing capabilities involves design, tuning, integration, certification by appropriate third parties such as Amazon, and multiple validation and testing stages. Much of this process occurs in what StreamUnlimited calls the "development gap" between hardware selection and manufacturing.

To bridge this gap, product manufacturers need tools that assist and streamline the process of designing, troubleshooting and tuning core functionality, as well as integrating value-added features such as native support for voice assistants and streaming services.

To drive development in a competitive market, DSP Concepts and StreamUnlimited each offer a set of software technologies with similar propositions. The Audio Weaver platform and StreamSDK software stack are both modular, customizable development environments with a wide range of capabilities, including third-party features and technologies. With each (or both), teams can easily design products with a competitive portfolio of features, supported by AVS certification and third-party services. To support their software solutions, StreamUnlimited also offers a range of hardware modules based on leading SoCs. In contrast to other AVS integrators that offer basic reference designs with limited additional features, the combination of StreamSDK and Audio Weaver provides cutting-edge hardware and software solutions for advanced product development.

Audio Weaver from DSP Concepts is a low-code, hardware-agnostic audio platform that removes the risk and complexity from designing audio products. With a drag-and-drop host application and a rich set of built-in signal processing libraries, Audio Weaver includes tools to help product makers streamline their development workflow at every step from prototype to production.

As a hardware-independent platform, Audio Weaver supports the layout and development of audio signal processing functions using only AWE Designer on the PC, allowing developers to tune and debug their designs before deploying them.

These designs can then be deployed when ready, without the need for redesign, into target products that incorporate the AWE core libraries. Further debugging, real-time tuning, and profiling can be performed using AWE Designer while connected to the hardware, thanks to dynamic instantiation of the layout and its components.

The Audio Weaver platform allows developers to work in parallel, each tuning or implementing different features separately, and then combining the features into a final layout for deployment. This approach reduces the risks associated with product design because audio signal processing can be efficiently designed, iterated quickly, and easily tested and tuned.

TalkTo, also from DSP Concepts, is a highly configurable Audio Front-End (AFE) that employs advanced signal processing techniques to deliver clean audio signals to speech recognition engines and voice assistants. TalkTo is easily scalable from a low-power single-mic solution with stationary sound detection and single-channel noise reduction to advanced multi-mic arrays and a host of advanced signal processing algorithms such as beamforming, multi-channel Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) for improved mid- and far-field voice detection for devices with high SPL output, and Adaptive Interference Cancellation (AIC) for up to 30 dB reduction in external noise. TalkTo's scalability makes it an ideal technology set to be included in products such as smart speakers and soundbars, TVs, smart home/IoT devices, hearables, and wearables.

StreamUnlimited's StreamSDK is a modular and customizable software solution that supports all major semiconductor suppliers, enabling new developments and the extension of existing platforms with streaming capabilities and voice user interfaces. StreamSDK supports a wide range of third-party services and features, including Chromecast, AirPlay2, Qplay, numerous music streaming services, playback using industry standard formats and proprietary codecs from Dolby, Sony, and more. It also supports all major voice assistants, allowing multiple built-in assistants to coexist on a single device, enabling voice interoperability across ecosystems.

For products requiring an edge-based voice UI, SensoryTM VoiceHub provides offline voice assistant capabilities to create and implement locally customizable wake words and command sets without any dependency on cloud computing.Another key aspect of the StreamSDK is the ability to incorporate multiple user interface methods to control the device via a mobile app, voice, on-board touch buttons, a dedicated remote control unit, or a web-based UI.

Due to its versatility of features and ease of implementation into end products, StreamSDK is the tool of choice for developing a wide range of products, from low-cost smart home devices to high-end performance audio products.

Thanks to the collaboration between DSP Concepts and StreamUnlimited, a reference design is now available that supports both StreamSDK and AWE core libraries. Based on the NXP iMX8M application processor, Stream1955 is a compact system-on-module with online connectivity, Dolby Atmos/Sony360/DTS:X decoding and voice assistant functionality using only the SoC (no DSP required).

The AVS Certified Development Kit is a complete reference solution for creating products with Alexa built in. This reference design allows you to develop your product with Audio Weaver in a unified environment for prototyping and tuning, de-risking and simplifying the audio layout creation process. The AVS certified TalkTo audio front-end and customized StreamUnlimited module available from within Audio Weaver pave the way to a fast track to Alexa Voice Service and Alexa Communications certification, reducing complexity and time to market with a robust product offering that will outperform your competitors.

As an Amazon Certified System Integrator, StreamUnlimited has implemented Alexa functionality natively on the StreamSDK software stack. The Stream1955 reference design supports Frustration-Free Setup (FFS), Multi-Room Music (MRM), Micless-MRM, Alexa Calling, Messaging, and Announcements (ACM), Amazon Music (including HD), Amazon Wake Word, and Alexa Cast.

The reference design includes AVS and the Google Assistant, as well as the TalkTo audio front-end with dual microphones and multi-channel AEC for reverberation and noise reduction, enabling clear near- and mid-field voice commands even in noisy environments.

The Stream1955 reference design from DSP Concepts and StreamUnlimited can help you start designing competitive, feature-rich soundbar and smart speaker products with AVS integration, reducing complexity and time to market.