WiFi Audio Streaming

White Paper by eConais

Powers the Internet of Things

WiFi Audio Steaming

Abstract

When talking about audio, we usually think about a speaker stereo system or a set of stereo headsets. In these cases, music is playing in a single room or close to the device hosting the music. Using the WiSmart platform from eConais and extending its capabilities with the necessary audio codec subsystem, it is possible to have WiFi Audio Link System called eC-WiSound.

Keywords: WiFi, Audio, Stereo, Speakers, Headset, Multiroom, MP3, FLAC, AAC, WAV, WMA, OGG, high quality, Bluetooth, Low Power, DLNA, Android, iOS, Windows, smartphones, tablets. eConais, July 2012 1

WiFi Audio Steaming

Table of Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3 The Problem ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Current Options ................................................................................................................................... 3 eConais Solution................................................................................................................................... 3 How it works ........................................................................................................................................ 5 Summary .............................................................................................................................................. 6

eConais, July 2012

WiFi Audio Steaming

Introduction

When talking about audio, we usually think about a speaker stereo system or a set of stereo headsets. In these cases, music is playing in a single room or close to the device hosting the music. What happens if we need to have different music to every room in the house? With the development of the handheld devices (like smartphones and tablets), there is a need for flexible and high quality sound anywhere in the house (or in the building) and to any speaker or headset available. How can we have music coming from different sources (smartphone, PC, stereo system/home theatre, etc.) and direct it dynamically to a speaker, to headset or use two active speakers to create a WiFi stereo audio system?

The Problem

Current Options

Traditional speakers with cables do not provide the solution to this problem. It is not possible to send music to speakers without using the audio system that drives them through cables. Even most modern Wireless Speakers Systems are not a real solution as most of them provide a Wireless Speaker Connection as cable replacement. There is a Bluetooth approach to the problem that presents mainly the following major disadvantages: 1. Very limited range (aprox. 10m) 2. Not suitable for multi-room configuration. 3. Not able to provide High Quality WAV audio. 4. Cannot have more than one different streams of music from the same device to different headsets or speakers.

eConais Solution

Using the WiSmart platform from eConais and extending its capabilities with the necessary audio codec subsystem, it is possible to have WiFi Audio Link System called eC-WiSound. eC-WiSound is capable of transferring music between any potential source equipped with WiFi connectivity (smartphone, PC, tablet, etc.), to any active speaker or headset equipped or designed with eC-WiSound. For existing Active Speakers a single eC-WiSound device can be used to receive the stream, decode it and drive two speakers connected to it with wires, thus creating a stereo set of speakers that can deliver excellent sound quality and is able to receive the music stream from any compatible source.

eConais, July 2012

WiFi Audio Steaming

The single or stereo Active Speakers configuration can be used in more than one room, and through the existing WiFi connection to deliver high quality multiroom music. There are many benefits of this approach, but the most important of them are: Range: The solution utilizes the range of the WiFi connection. (2540m indoors, up to 400m outdoors) Connectivity: WiFi is the most developed and the widest spread technology in the last few years. Almost every house has a WiFi router, all the Notebooks and all the smartphones have WiFi connectivity. The use of existing infrastructure is a benefit of this approach. High quality sound: The WiFi bandwidth enables the solution to deliver WAV level high quality sound. Multiroom: Utilizing the WiFi infrastructure it is easy to have multiroom configurations, with different music to every room from the same or different sources. That means that while the PC streams music to the bedroom and to living rooms speakers, the smartphone could stream music to kitchen speaker. Compatibility: The eC-WiSound is DLNA compatible. This enables it to communicate with all the rest DLNA/UPnP compatible devices. All modern PC operating systems are compliant to DLNA/UPnP, most modern smart devices and there are many free players for the smartphones and tablets that can use the DLNA/UPnP devices to play music. Easy configuration: The eC-Wismart can be easily configured by any device that has WiFi connection and a web browser. The eCWiSound has a built-in configuration web server from where user can select what to do with each speaker and how to connect to the home network. Low power consumption & low average TX power: The power consumption of the eC-WiSound is low, as its role is to receive data.

eConais, July 2012

WiFi Audio Steaming The transmissions from the eC-WiSound keep the connectivity during the playback and are limited to a few bytes for every Kbyte of received data. This is very important especially for the headset approach which: a) It is battery powered and power save is important. b) Is close to the head of the user, and minimizing the RF transmissions is important. The eC-WiSound decodes on hardware the following audio formats: Ogg Vorbis MP3 (MPEG 1 & 2 audio layer III (CBR + VBR + ABR)) MP1/MP2 (layers I & II optional) MPEG4/ 2 AAC-LC(+PNS),HE-AAC v2 (Level 3) (SBR + PS) WMA 4.0/4.1/7/8/9 all profiles (5-384 kbps) General MIDI 1 / SP-MIDI format 0 files FLAC WAV (PCM + IMA ADPCM) The use of hardware codec gives superior sound and extended audio format support, without the need for the MCU to do heavy decoding operations, which is very beneficial for the power consumption.

How it works

The eC-WiSound solution can be used for creating WiFi Active speakers and WiFi stereo headsets. It is a DLNA compatible device, supporting Multiroom & Multiple Speaker on the same network. DLNA mode operates as a normal DLNA renderer device. In this mode any other network device that supports DLNA can send music to eC-WiSound. Examples of such devices are PCs with moderns Operating Systems (i.e. MS Windows 7, Linux or Apple Mac OS X) and a majority of Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. Even if a device does not natively support the DLNA standard, there are numerous free DLNA compliant players and applications that can be installed on them to send the music to eCWiSound. DLNA implementation for the eC-WiSound is widely supported. Using DLNA it is possible to have different songs playing in different eCWiSound speakers in different rooms of the house. The music streams for eC-WiSound speakers in the different rooms of the

eConais, July 2012

WiFi Audio Steaming house could originate either form different sources (some from a PC, some from a smartphone or from a tablet), or all of them could originate from the same source (i.e. a notebook or desktop). The problem with DLNA arises when we need to use 2 or more eCWiSound speakers that should reproduce synchronized sound of a specific source. The DLNA is does not have yet the synchronized playback feature. The configuration of each speaker can be done either through the built-in configuration web pages of the eC-WiSound or by optional hardware buttons LCD screen panel on the speaker.

Summary

A Smart WiFi audio system created with eC-WiSound, an audio system with excellent sound quality for a house or building offers many advantages. The most important benefits of an implementation are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Wide range of audio formats supported on HW level Higher quality audio compared to Bluetooth DLNA support Multi-room solution Headset suitable solution Flawless sound quality Easy configuration Low power consumption makes it suitable for battery operation Extended connection range comparing to Bluetooth

eConais, July 2012