LE Audio for All – Auracast™ Takes Personal Audio into the Public Arena

How Does it Work? 

The general concept behind Auracast is an intuitive one for anyone familiar with broadcast media like television or radio. Rather than an audio connection which is directly between audio source (like a phone or computer) to audio sink (like a headset or speaker), Auracast is built more around the idea of broadcaster acting like a radio or television antenna, and the receiver tuning in to an ongoing stream. This means that many, many devices are capable of joining the same stream, and all listening in real time to an ongoing source of audio. 

In this scenario, your personal device acts like the gateway, which will connect to a broadcast source and then route the audio to your connected Bluetooth audio device. This enables your smart device to negotiate the connection and serve as the interface device before passing audio on to your connected headphone or speaker. 

In specific, the Bluetooth SIG specifies a number of ways that users might tune in: either by searching for a broadcast in much the same way that you scan for nearby Wi-Fi networks, by scanning a QR code to provide your device with the broadcast address, or by tapping your phone to an NFC tag to make the connection. In all cases, it’s very simple to connect to a broadcast source and immediately join a broadcast stream. 

How many devices can connect in this way? It’s limitless. Because it’s a broadcast topology and the end devices listen in without any awareness of each other, this architecture can be extended to a countless number of devices in range of the broadcasting node. This distinction is important, because it enables some of the more transformative applications that make Auracast unique. 

What Can You Do with It? 

Auracast is a game changer for Bluetooth audio, enabling applications that were previously entirely out of the question. Some are on the simpler and smaller scale, while others potentially can serve thousands of users in huge, sprawling locations. The Bluetooth SIG describes them in three categories: “share our audio,” “unmute our world,” and “hear our best.”

We’ve already discussed the “hear our best” use case in the form of hearing aids. By enabling broadcast audio to hearing aid devices, Auracast enables accessibility for the hearing impaired by broadcasting, for example, a microphone feed to the listener. This is a substitution for previous technologies like Telecoil, which reduces cost and complexity of enabling environments for accessibility.

The next category, “share our audio,” is a new and improved solution to a long time need. A far cry from the old days of sharing a set of earbuds, Bluetooth audio sharing can allow users to broadcast audio from their phone for a listening party among friends. A handful of users can all easily tune into the same music stream, enabling a high-fidelity streaming experience for groups in the same location. 

The last category, “unmute our world,” seeks to connect users to audio sources that are all around them but are often inaccessible. A good example might be a wall of TVs at your local sports bar. They’re all playing different games, and you want to listen to the play call for your team, but that TV’s audio isn’t playing over the bar speakers. With Auracast, you’d be able to pair your listening device to the game you’re interested in, and listen just to that audio stream. The same might apply to TVs in a gym, or other places where multiple audio sources are in competition for space. Auracast gives you the ability to tune in to what interests you in congested environments.

Beyond these simple and intimate use cases, there are much bigger opportunities for Auracast. For example: imagine a guided museum tour where rather than renting a special set of earphones, users can simply tap their phone on an exhibit to listen to the history of an art piece or a fossil exhibition. Now imagine these streams are accessible in multiple spoken languages, turning any exhibit into an international experience. This is just one way Bluetooth audio can serve crowds in a public setting. 

Another example is a place where multilingual broadcasting can be particularly useful: airport terminals. In locations like this where thousands of people are in transit from everywhere around the world, important notices such as arrival and departure announcements are essential. Multilingual, terminal-wide broadcast channels can get important updates to travelers and make sure everyone stays informed and reaches their destination more efficiently. This is just one example of a very large venue with multiple audiences who can all be served efficiently and simultaneously with Auracast. 

A New Era for Broadcast Audio

Ultimately, widespread adoption of new technologies depends on a few things: accessibility, utility, and fulfilling a critical need among them. Bluetooth technology has all of these advantages, and the omnipresence of Bluetooth receiver devices everywhere in the world makes Auracast a stand-out candidate for a new wave of broadcast audio adoption. 

Ezurio, in collaboration with Cloud2GND, is proud to announce the Aurawave AW100 Series Auracast platform. This innovative solution combines our battle-tested BL5340PA Bluetooth LE module with Cloud2GND’s Aurawave Audio Framework to help you bring next-gen audio to your products much faster. Our joint development enables a solution that delivers high-quality audio to an infinite number of receiver clients, perfect for public spaces and personal audio systems alike. 

This solution ships with pre-built binaries for out-of-the-box AT command use, and is capable of hosted or hostless operation, meaning you can integrate it into your existing device or use it as the main platform for your Auracast development. 

For more information on the Aurawave AW100 series, please visit:

https://www.ezurio.com/product/aurawave-aw100-series-auracast-development-board

https://www.ezurio.com/aw100