Dolby and DTS audio technologies aren’t just for the home, as underscored by mobile product announcements at the Mobile World Congress.
Lenovo expanded its selection of mobile devices with Dolby Atmos object-based surround with the launch at of three Tab3-series tablets. Acer, meanwhile, added DTS Play-Fi wireless multiroom-audio support to its new Acer Liquid Jade 2 smartphone.
Here’s what’s coming:
DTS: For the first time in any mobile handset, DTS Play-Fi wireless-multiroom-audio technology has been incorporated as a system-level device driver. The driver makes its debut in Acer’s Liquid Jade 2 smartphone.
As a result, the Liquid Jade 2 streams audio from any app or any file over standard Wi-Fi to one or more Play-Fi-equipped tabletop speaker and other Play-Fi-equipped devices.
The Acer phone “works with any application on the phone,” a spokesman told TWICE. “It’s app-independent since the technology is built in at the operating-system level. If the app can make sounds from the headphone jack or internal speaker, it can be sent to a Play-fi speaker.”
“Since we are at the OS level, it works with any app, including Apple Music. And unlike Bluetooth, AirPlay or GoogleCast, we offer lossless quality audio, multi-room streaming, and audio/video synchronization to maintain perfect lip-sync.”
Here’s how it works, the spokesman said: “A Play-Fi tile in the Android notification area, when pressed, allows you to connect to one or more Play-Fi products. So if you had a DLNA app that lets you play from your PC, just run the app and choose which Play-Fi speakers to listen to.”
Play-Fi’s debut in a Chinese-brand smartphone highlights the potential for the technology to appear in Android devices not made by LG and Samsung, which offer wireless-multiroom speakers incorporating their own technology.
DTS’s Play-Fi technology is available in speakers and other audio components from such companies as Anthem, Definitive Technology, MartinLogan, McIntosh, Paradigm, Phorus, Polk Audio and Wren.
The Liquid Jade 2 is also the industry’s first phone to incorporate DTS’s Headphone:X technology in a system-level driver. Headphone:X delivers a surround-sound experience through any pair of headphones or ear buds and can now be accessed and used from any app on the phone, the company said.
Dolby:Lenovo launched three Tab3-series tablets to expand its portfolio of mobile devices with Dolby Atmos object-based surround to more than 10. The three tablets deliver a virtualized Atmos soundfield through built-in stereo speakers and through headphones.
With object-based surround, consumers hear sounds above them, not just around them. Individual sounds can also be placed anywhere in a three-dimensional space, and individual sounds pan more smoothly around listeners compared to other surround formats.
The Lenovo Tab3 products are expected to be available starting June through the company’s retailers.
The Amazon Fire HDX tablet and BQ Aquaris M5 also are Dolby Atmos-enabled.
