Bluetooth LE audio “low power, high quality, multi-stream support”

Bluetooth LE Audio is announced by Bluetooth SIG, which manages Bluetooth, a short-range wireless communication standard, as a next-generation standard for Bluetooth Audio, an audio device connection communication standard.

Bluetooth LE audio is a standard using Bluetooth LE (Bluetooth Low Energy), a Bluetooth low power communication mode. The introduction of the new audio codec LC3 (Low Complexity Communications Codec) will improve sound quality even at a lower bit rate than before. Bluetooth LE audio also suppresses power consumption, so it can extend product battery life or reduce battery size.

One of the biggest features of Bluetooth LE audio is that it enables multi-stream audio. With the existing Bluetooth connection, only one audio source device such as a smartphone, which plays sound sources, can be connected to an audio sink device such as earphones or speakers. Therefore, left and right separate wireless earphones have taken a method in which one connected to the device and Bluetooth relays signals to the other.

However, with the introduction of Bluetooth LE audio, since signals can be transmitted independently to the left and right earphones, the delay time is reduced and the use of voice assistant services in wireless earphones can be made much smoother. Also, for Bluetooth LE audio, there is no limit to the number of audio sink devices to which an audio source device can be connected. Therefore, it is possible to switch seamlessly without having to set up a connection every time you change the speaker or earphone. If audio is shared using Bluetooth LE audio in public facilities such as airports, bars, gyms, and movie theaters, it is expected that it will be possible to support hearing loss and provide multilingual audio.

Bluetooth SIGo explains that hearing aids will also evolve significantly through Bluetooth LE audio’s low-power, high-quality multi-stream audio. With the advent of Bluetooth technology, modern hearing aids have become compact and smart. However, with the introduction of Bluetooth LE audio, hearing aids can be miniaturized and improved sound quality.

The Bluetooth SIG said that the Bluetooth specification that defines Bluetooth LE audio will be released in the first half of 2020, and predicts that Bluetooth LE audio support products will enter the market from the second half of 2021 to 2022. Related information can be found here.