Onkyo & Imagination Technologies Team Up for Wireless Audio

The electronics companies will collaborate on next-gen wireless audio systems.  

Onkyo and Imagination Technologies have announced a partnership aimed at developing high quality streaming wireless audio systems. As part of the agreement, Onkyo is licensing Imagination's proprietary Caskeid and FlowCloud audio technologies.

"In the last decade we have witnessed a massive increase in music consumption. Unfortunately during this period audio quality has been lost in the rush for convenience. The time has come to raise the bar back up. By working with Imagination and its partners, who are at the centre of this movement, we will aggressively expand wireless audio music streaming and High Quality Audio out of Japan to the rest of the world," said Munenori Otsuki, president and CEO, Onkyo Corporation.

Imagination's Caskeid tech enables synchronized wireless streaming to multiple rooms with multiple speakers grouped together through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The tech promises hi-fi stereo playback with less than 25uS synchronization accuracy. Meanwhile, Imagination's FlowCloud allows devices to connect to the internet for updates, registration, and other partner-enabled apps. This includes the company's FlowAudio service which offers hundreds of thousands of cloud-based radio stations and on-demand audio content.

"We are delighted to be working with such a technically capable audio company as Onkyo. Imagination's Caskeid and FlowCloud technologies are crucial to enabling both the Streaming Music and High Quality Audio revolutions. Onkyo is a brand that can engineer and carry these products to market. I am certain the music listening experience is going to change through collaborations of this kind," said Hossein Yassaie, CEO, Imagination.

While these technologies are expected to find their way into Onkyo's upcoming wireless audio systems, no actual products have been announced at this time.

Source: Imagination Technologies

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