0122 Mw Ceva Bluebud Ces Promo 61d4ae3a079e2

Software Enhancements Further Ease Use of CEVA’s Wireless Audio Platform

Jan. 4, 2022

Bluebud-HD, a pre-configured software package for CEVA's Bluebud platform, features immersive audio, wideband voice conversation, always-on voice assistant, assistive hearing, and IMU-based contextual awareness, all processed on the embedded CEVA-BX1 DSP.

David Maliniak

Related To: Microwaves & RF

Check out our CES 2022 coverage.

The Overview

This week at CES 2022, CEVA has unveiled enhancements to the software offerings and tool kits for its Bluebud wireless audio platform with the addition of Bluebud-HD, a pre-configured software package that includes all the audio, voice and context-aware software required in premium TWS earbuds, gaming headsets, hearables, wearables, and other smart audio products.

Who Needs It & Why?

According to research firm Yole Développement, shipments of true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds, hearing aids, smartwatches, and smart speakers will surpass 1.3 billion units annually by 2026, with premium audio becoming a must-have feature for many applications such as gaming, AR/VR experiences, and 3D sound. CEVA’s Bluebud wireless audio platform, combined with the accompanying Bluebud-HD software package gives OEMs a means of capitalizing on the market momentum behind premium audio while sidestepping the complexity of combining wireless and audio.

Under the Hood

The Bluebud-HD software package takes advantage of the on-board CEVA-BX1 DSP to consolidate a wide range of optimized HD audio, voice, and context-aware modules which are otherwise processed on separate DSPs or MCUs in non-CEVA architectures. The Bluebud hardware platform has been upgraded to include CEVA’s latest SIG-qualified RivieraWaves Bluetooth 5.3 IP, with both Classic Audio and LE Audio, and the CEVA-BX1 audio processor, together with all the required peripherals for wireless audio, in a compact low-power design, with a footprint of less than 0.5 mm² in 22-nm process technology.

Bluebud-HD also supports audio processing using 96-KHz/24-bit precision, enabling many high-resolution audio standards. The fully integrated software package includes:

CEVA’s ClearVox, enhanced to support sampling rates up to 48 KHz, for super wideband voice conversations
VisiSonics RS3D software for an immersive 3D audio experience
CEVA’s MotionEngine Hear software for accurate head tracking, in-ear detection, and tap control
Personalized hearing tuning for adaptation to each listener’s hearing
LHDC high-definition audio codec
CEVA’s SenslinQ DSP software framework for plug-and-play, power-efficient, native DSP algorithms
Bluebud-HD SDK

CEVA also announced today that its SenslinQ software framework and the CEVA-BX1 DSP tool kit have been upgraded for the Bluebud platform to streamline the addition of 3^rd-party DSP algorithms and to facilitate the easy migration of existing software from other processor architectures. Host CPU application developers benefit from the OpenAMP API for virtualized access to the feature sets enabled by Bluebud-HD and other audio, voice, and speech software available through the CEVAnet partner ecosystem. The SenslinQ framework enables Bluebud customers to consolidate all audio, voice, and IMU-based contextual awareness workloads onto the CEVA-BX1 DSP rather than embedding separate DSPs for wireless and audio and results in smaller die size and lower power consumption.

Availability

The Bluebud platform, Bluebud-HD software package and SenslinQ software framework are available for licensing today.

Check out our CES 2022 coverage.

About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our contributor's packet, in which you'll find an article template and lots more useful information on how to properly prepare content for us, and send to me along with a signed release form.

About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.