Los Angeles – Audyssey
Laboratories, the developer of audio-processing technologies found in many home
audio products and some TVs, plans to increase consumer awareness of its brand through
a Facebook campaign, online advertising and the launch of more Audyssey-branded
products.
The Audyssey-brand products will
help build brand awareness among consumers and “help drive our ability to
license our technologies,” marketing VP Robb Mason told TWICE. The company will
launch six new “digital consumption products” between now and Christmas 2011.
The first is a $399-suggested tabletop iPod/iPhone speaker with stereo
Bluetooth. It’s due around Nov. 1 in select stores. Future products would be
associated with computers, mobile devices and other products that don’t compete
directly with licensees’ main businesses, Mason said.
Also to promote the brand, the
company launched a Facebook campaign and is ready to launch ads on music and
lifestyle websites. The company will also promote the iPod speaker system on
these sites as well as on Mac-related sites, Mason said.
The only other products that the
company currently markets under its own name are two home audio components. One
is the Sound EQ room-correction system, available in $2,499 and $4,999
versions. The $7990 SubEQ is a room-correction component for use with
subwoofers.
They’ll be joined by the tabletop
iPod two-way speaker system, the Audyssey Audio Dock – South of Market Edition,
which doubles as a Bluetooth hands-free speaker phone for iPhones and other
cellphones. It also streams stereo music from Bluetooth-connected mobile
devices.
The dock, which captures analog
audio from an iPod’s 30-pin connector, also comes with USB to sync a docked iPod
with a connected computer’s iTunes software. Via USB and an embedded
microphone, it also doubles as VoIP speakerphone. And via its 3.5 mm line
input, it doubles as a computer speaker.
To fit on a desktop near a
computer and in other tight spaces, the 9-inch by 5-inch by 9-inch system
features a narrow horizontal profile. To widen the soundstage, Audyssey uses a
pair of 0.75-inch tweeters that fire to the left and right at 45-degree angles.
The tweeters are complemented by side-firing 4-inch woofers. Active crossovers
are used to biamplify the system.
For hands-free speakerphone use,
the device features front- and rear-facing microphones combined with a
proprietary telephony algorithm called Dynamic Voice to cancel echoes, reduce
noise, and equalize the voice for improved audibility.
The device also incorporates other
proprietary technologies, including Bass XT for bass extension and DynamicEQ,
which adjusts bass output as volume rises and falls to maintain balance with
upper frequency output.
Other included proprietary
technologies are Audyssey EQ to balance frequency response, Audyssey Dynamic EQ
to adjust frequency response automatically as volume is turned down, and
Audyssey Dynamic Volume to automatically adjust for different songs’ and
sources’ levels.
Audyssey will also offer a free
iPhone/iPod Touch app that lets users draw an EQ curve with their finger on the
touchscreen of an iPhone or Touch to adjust the speaker’s tonal balance.
