It's New Year's Eve for tech fans! CES, the International Consumer Electronics Show, the big annual event in the field of technology and the world's consumer electronics trendsetter, took place between January 9 and January 12 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
This year's CES was a bustling event, not only did the number of exhibitors reach a staggering 4,000 or more, but the scene was even more fiery than imagined, with popular booths often surrounded by tons of people just to get a glimpse of the latest cutting-edge technology.
As an invited media and industry analyst, 52audio.com flew all the way from Southern China to the West Coast of America to experience the event live and bring you first-hand CES information.
Now that CES 2024 has come to a perfect close, we've combed through the audio portion of this year's conference to find six noteworthy trends in the audio industry this year, so check it out~!
01 Open Wearable Stereo Becomes a Big Hit Category
Open Wearable Stereo was a big hit at CES this year in the audio category. Last year was the "first year" of Open Wearable Stereo, and the audio category at CES 2024 was even more "dominated" by Open Wearable Stereo.
No matter how big or small the brand is, almost all the audio exhibitors' booths are filled with this new category of "strange" headphones.
First to lead the charge was Shokz, a company with a long history in sports audio, and last year's Open Wearable Stereo, the OpenFit, made a reappearance at the Shokz booth.
Bose used CES 2024 as a launch event for its new Bose Open Ear Clips. The new product is in the shape of a letter G and clips onto the ear, a unique form that is very eye-catching.
TOZO exhibits with Open Wearable Stereo headphones TOZO Open , this product is set up with an adjustable ear-hanging structure, which allows the headset to fit more closely to the curves of the face when worn.
Audio and accessory brands such as 1MORE, Baseus, EMEET and others also presented Open Wearable Stereo products.
1MORE's S30 and S50, two Open Wearable Stereo products, were on the stand; Baseus' Eli Sport 1, which is positioned as a sports product, was again on the stand; and EMEET's AirFlow made its debut, a headset focusing on office scenarios and featuring a detachable microphone.
Open Wearable Stereo is becoming a hot category in the consumer audio industry in the next few years. Previously, 52audio.com had made the prediction that Open Wearable Stereo will become a new growth point in the industry, and the heat of Open Wearable Stereo in the audio industry at this year's CES has, to a certain extent, fulfilled our prediction.
02 AI Transforming the Audio Industry
Generative AI had a broad and deep impact on nearly every product at CES 2024, from entertainment to efficiency, from on-the-go devices to mobility vehicles, and naturally, the audio industry was transformed by AI.
Luna, the new voice assistant from tech solutions company Bragi, has gone live on the Bragi 5 audio platform. Luna is the world's first Chat-GPT-powered voice assistant, and on Bragi Enabled headphones, users can tweet, adjust audio settings, and do more with direct voice commands.
Mojawa's new product, the Mojawa HaptiFit Terra, has an "AI Exercise Coach" built in to help achieve exercise goals by customizing exercise plans with artificial intelligence.
JBL has added "AI sound enhancement" capabilities to the new JBL Xtreme 4 portable speaker. The speaker uses built-in AI algorithms to analyze music and optimize sound in real time, "delivering more powerful and fidelity sound".
The combination of generative AI and consumer electronics is getting deeper and deeper, and the impact on the audio industry is also gradually appearing. We expect to see more forms of application of "audio + AI".
03 Audio + Health Combination
During CES 2024, the combination of the two dimensions of audio and health also has a wealth of attractions, which can be mainly categorized into hearing aid technology and ultrasound, neuro-assisted control and other cutting-edge technologies.
Signia introduces the Silk Charge&Go IX Hearing Aid, the world's first rechargeable, ready-to-wear, fully in-the-ear hearing aid that sits discreetly in the ear and borrows charging and design cues from the TWS earbuds to minimize charging hassles.
ELEHEAR's Alpha Pro hearing aids have built-in AI noise reduction technology to enhance the human voice.
Canadian startup team Naqi Logix's Naqi Neural Earbuds help people with disabilities achieve control of their devices with built-in gyroscope, muscle and brainwave sensors.
NeurGear has launched ZenBud that "helps calm the mind" by stimulating the vagus nerve with ultrasonic, claimed that "for as little as five minutes a week, you can perceive a significant increase in stress resistance".
Master & Dynamic introduces the MW75, a headphone that monitors EEG (electroencephalogram), and through built-in sensors, detects and analyzes the wearer's brainwaves, helping to inform the user of mental health conditions.
05 Audio + Translation Ushers in New Innovations
This year, the audio industry has also seen the development of another "seemingly not new but very new" audio subcategory - translation and communication products.
Cross-language translation and communication products are not new, but previous translation products have received limited attention due to translation accuracy and experience issues. However, under the generative AI transformation, we saw some eye-opening translation + audio products at this year's CES.
Timekettle's X1 Simultaneous Interpreter caused quite a stir at the conference. The interpreter, which consists of a main unit with a screen and two earbuds, taps into cloud-based AI translation technology to make translation results more accurate.
On the other hand, in terms of the whole experience, Timekettle X1's two-way real-time interpretation mode also changes the traditional translator's "speak-translate-listen" mode, making communication smoother.
Mymanu's new Mymanu CLIK Pro, which debuted at CES 2024, offers a similar experience, consisting of a main unit with a screen and two in-ear headphones, with the translated text appearing directly on the main unit's screen, positioning it as an 'immersive translation earbuds'.
VoicePie's TransBuds was also unveiled at this year's CES, which supports remote simultaneous translation without the need for additional equipment or software on the receiving end, further simplifying the tediousness of cross-language and cross-cultural communication.
Previously, machine translation was often limited to cell phone apps, but at this year's CES we saw more possibilities.
05 In-depth Technological Innovation and Comprehensive Update of Audio Units
Finally, at the level of the technology driving audio, 52audio.com also saw a clear trend of technology iteration at this year's CES.
On the software front, solutions like Snapdragon Sound, Bragi platforms, LE Audio, etc. are becoming more and more prevalent on TWS headsets, headphones, and more.
Sennheiser's newly unveiled MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 brings Snapdragon Sound to the Qualcomm S5 Sound Gen 2 platform.
Audio-Technica's TWX9 also feature Snapdragon Sound, which delivers aptX Adaptive sound quality, lower latency, and a more stable listening experience.
At the hardware technology level, one of the major trends in audio products at this year's CES is the wider use of new types of units.
Audio pioneer xMEMS Labs showcased its Sleep Earbuds and Crossover Audio Solution. The Sleep Earbuds automatically block out snoring sounds based on the external environment, while the Crossover Audio Solution dramatically improves the performance of the headset in high frequencies with an all-silicon MEMS speaker.
Knowles' moving iron and bone conduction units find wider application. Knowles introduces new bone conduction sound sensor V2S for consumer electronics, automotive and more.
Tectonic's newest small-sized units, the TEAX series, realize immersive stereo sound in a two-speaker unit configuration, bringing significant improvements to the sound quality of VR headsets, headphones, and other devices.
Overall, the wider use of all-silicon MEMS speakers, moving-iron speakers, bone conduction transducers and other new units will bring new momentum to the forward development of audio.
On the chip front, the GAP9 chip from semiconductor company GreenWaves brings outstanding performance to audio devices. The chip not only realizes simultaneous analysis of audio and video signals in a small volume, but also supports ultra-low-latency AI neural network noise reduction and 3D sound effects.
It is worth mentioning that headphones with a screen have also become a noteworthy trend. the intervention of AI in headphones, audio products on the bearer needs the support of a screen in order to bring a good experience for consumers.
JBL's new JBL Live 3 series features a 1.45-inch LED screen on the charging case and Bluetooth 5.3 support.
Audio Asia Expo 2024 (Spring)
Gathering the world's cutting-edge Bluetooth headset and audio technology, Audio Asia Expo 2024 (Spring) will be held on May 16 - May 17, 2024 at Shenzhen Futian Convention and Exhibition Center.
Audio Asia Expo attracts hundreds of companies from all over the world to participate, covering Bluetooth audio, speaker equipment and other fields, especially in promoting the application and popularization of audio and Bluetooth technology, Asia Audio Asia Expo's contribution to the industry is highly acclaimed.
Time: May 16 - May 17, 2024
Venue: Hall 5, Futian Convention & Exhibition Center, Shenzhen, China
Organizer: 52audio.com
Hotline: +8617704061087, info@52audio.com
Audio Asia Expo 2024 (Spring) invites you to join us in shaping the future of audio!
06 52audio.com's Summary: Vitality is Unlimited, the Audio Industry's 2024 is Something to Look Forward to
This year's CES is the "hottest" CES in recent years, showing the rapid warming of the consumer electronics environment; if we converge on the audio, we can also find that the audio industry presents unlimited vitality.
Open Wearable Stereo has become the most prominent and biggest audio trend after the 2023. New Open Wearable Stereo products dominated the booths of audio brands, showing the industry's significant attention to this new category.
The audio industry has been transformed by AI with the widespread use of generative AI. Use cases such as AI Assistant, AI Translation, and AI Tuning have opened the way for AI to transform audio.
The cross-border integration of audio with health and translation is full of interesting innovations: TWS-type hearing aids, ultrasonic headphones, and EEG headphones have opened up innovative space for "audio+health", while "audio+translation" innovations have revitalized the category of translation machines, creating a barrier-free future for cross-cultural communication.
Finally, hardware and software technologies continue to innovate: Snapdragon Sound, Bluetooth 5.3 and other Bluetooth technologies continue to be rolled out to bring users a better listening experience; the application of new units such as full MEMS speakers, moving irons, and bone conduction microphones is becoming more and more widely used, bringing new impetus to the industry's development from the bottom of the technology.
This year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of CES organizer CTA. Looking back at the past 100 years, from records and radios to digital media and wireless headphones, the development of the audio industry has never stopped. Consumer electronics rebound, the emergence of new categories of headphones, under the influence of the AI tide, what will be the future of the audio industry? 52audio.com will witness it with you.