By Godson Umejiego, Bureau Chief, The Americas

Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. Wednesday unveiled an addition to the Qualcomm S3 Gen 2 Sound platform portfolio.  This newly enhanced solution is optimized for gaming. It combines Snapdragon Sound and LE Audio to deliver ultra-low latency of less than 20ms for lag-free wireless audio with voice back-channel for in-game chat. When delivering game audio only, the latency is further reduced.

The solution will also support the latest LE Audio Auracast™ broadcast capabilities for dongles and adapters, which can transform devices such as TVs, phones, laptops, PCs, consoles and a wide range of other audio equipment into premium broadcast platforms. For music listening, 24-bit 96kHz high-resolution Bluetooth® streaming is supported using Snapdragon Sound and Qualcomm® aptX™ Adaptive audio technology. Snapdragon Sound allows for premium music playback, so listeners can hear every detail of their music just as the artist intended it to be heard.

“With every generation of Snapdragon Sound, we have driven down latencies and improved audio quality, and with this latest addition to our Qualcomm S3 Gen 2 Sound portfolio, we are providing our best wireless gaming experience yet. We know from our annual State of Sound survey that consumers want lag-free audio for gaming, but until now this immersive wireless audio experience has been reserved for proprietary gaming solutions”, said director, marketing, and head of Snapdragon Sound, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc, Mike Canevaro. “This new platform has been optimized to deliver an ultra-low latency experience for gaming over Bluetooth with Snapdragon Sound, but it also means the same devices can be used for calls and ultra-premium music listening.” 

“Our research also showed huge consumer anticipation for audio sharing use cases that can now be enabled by Auracast Broadcast, including easily sharing audio with multiple friends or family from your phone or laptop, or listening in to wirelessly streamed Auracast audio in public places. This new platform can also be used to design dongles and adaptors that will enable Auracast Broadcast audio sharing from any source devices,” continued Canevaro.

For gaming this solution is optimized for adapters used in audio sources. When paired with Qualcomm S5 and S3 Gen 2 based earbuds and headsets, it delivers robust connectivity and dynamic latency adaption based on the external RF environment. Gamers can walk away from their consoles or PC and still hear all the gaming action and participate in the chat with no interruptions to the audio.