LE Audio: The next generation of Bluetooth audio

[salmanfaris]

Building on 20 years of innovation, LE Audio will not only enhance the performance of Bluetooth audio but will bring all its benefits to people with hearing loss and introduce Audio Sharing, an innovative new use case with the potential to once again change the way we connect with each other and experience the world around us.

LE Audio is on Bluetooth Low Energy

As the names suggest, Classic Audio operates on the Bluetooth Classic radio while LE Audio operates on the Bluetooth Low Energy radio. LE Audio will not only support development of the same audio products and use cases as Classic Audio, it will introduce exciting new features that promise to improve their performance as well as enable the creation of new products and use cases.

LE Audio is LC3

LE Audio will include a new high-quality, low-power audio codec, the Low Complexity Communications Codec (LC3). Providing high quality even at low data rates, LC3 will bring tremendous flexibility to developers, allowing them to make better design tradeoffs between key product attributes such as audio quality and power consumption.

LE Audio is Multi-Stream

Multi-Stream Audio will enable the transmission of multiple, independent, synchronized audio streams between an audio source device, such as a smartphone, and one or more audio sink devices.

LE Audio is Bluetooth Hearing Aids

Building on its low power, high quality and multi-stream capabilities, LE Audio adds support for Hearing Aids. Bluetooth audio has brought significant benefits to a large percentage of the global population. Wireless calling, listening, and watching have made people safer, more productive, and more entertained. LE Audio will enable the development of Bluetooth hearing aids that bring all the benefits of Bluetooth audio to the growing number of people with hearing loss.

LE Audio is Broadcast

LE Audio will also add Broadcast Audio, enabling an audio source device to broadcast one or more audio streams to an unlimited number of audio sink devices. Broadcast Audio opens significant new opportunities for innovation, including the enablement of a new Bluetooth use case, Audio Sharing.

Broadcast is Audio Sharing

Bluetooth Audio Sharing can be personal or location-based. With personal audio sharing, people will be able to share their Bluetooth audio experience with others around them; for example, sharing music from a smartphone with family and friends. With location-based audio sharing, public venues such as airports, bars, gyms, cinemas, and conference centres can now share Bluetooth audio that augments the visitor experience.

Source : https://www.bluetooth.com/learn-about-bluetooth/bluetooth-technology/le-audio/

[kowshik1729]

Woow awesome article...I have a little query here. I have found recently that we can stream Audio using ESP32 over BLE. So, in this article, it is told that the individual streaming of audio is possible. Which means do they have two BLE's in two ear pods working collaboratively when used for both ears and working individually when streamed individually?