This partnership between WiSA and Sunplus is significant as it speeds up development of Dolby Atmos soundbars by providing what the two stakeholders call the SPA300 SoC Software Development Kit.
The development kit leverages WiSA’s expertise in immersive sound technology. There are several brands that supply WiSA certified equipment. The partnership between WiSA and Sunplus should see many more speakers become part of the WiSA ecosystem. Up to 8 wireless WiSA certified speakers can be connected together to form a surround sound set up.
In our Home AV BRIEF, we discuss how the soundbar market is still experiencing growth. We identified that there is a high demand for immersive content.
This trend is validated by the press release as WiSA and Sunplus have also identified the demand for Dolby Atmos soundbars. The integration of the development SPA300 SoC Software Development Kit should speed up time to market and increase availability to the consumer.
Immersive audio is becoming very popular. The peak of this is hard to predict, but expect more news on the availability of other immersive codecs on Home AV devices as the weeks roll on.
In the Home AV Forecast, SAR demonstrates the pressures applied to other markets such as home theatre in a box thanks to the convenience and desirability of soundbar tech features. SAR also notes a shift in trend with regards to smart speakers due to consumers opting for generally better sound quality from soundbars matched with the requirement for streaming visual content from multiple streaming services now available on the market.
