DTS' Play-Fi Adds Alexa Control With Firmware Updates, Mic-Equipped Speakers Due in Q1

DTS is the latest multiroom audio company to announce it’s adding Alexa voice control. The company is working with Amazon to add the Alexa service to DTS Play-Fi products early next year, it said in a Tuesday announcement. Sonos (see 1608300040) and Denon (see 1609200055) also recently announced Alexa compatibility for their multiroom ecosystems. Beginning in “early 2017,” Play-Fi owners will be able to use an Alexa-enabled device -- including the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap and Amazon Fire TV -- to play and control music on one or more DTS Play-Fi-enabled speakers in the home, “regardless of brand,” said DTS. The company also is working with Play-Fi partners to bring far-field Alexa capabilities to DTS Play-Fi speakers through the Alexa Voice Service, with future Play-Fi products incorporating a set of far-field microphones, enabling customers to use the Alexa service and mics to control various devices in their home by voice, DTS said. The Play-Fi speakers will use signal processing techniques like those in the Amazon Alexa products to “capture spoken commands in noisy environments, even when the speaker is playing music, from across the room,” it said. Mic-equipped, Alexa-enabled Play-Fi products will launch from “select partners” next year, it said. There are currently 30-plus Play-Fi speakers, soundbars and receivers from Aerix, Anthem, Arcam, Definitive Technology, Integra, Klipsch, Martin-Logan, McIntosh, Onkyo, Paradigm, Phorus, Pioneer, Polk, Rotel, Sonus Faber and Wren Sound Systems, with new products and firmware updates enabling Alexa service slated for a Q1 rollout, DTS said.