The European Broadcasting Union is teaming with NAB Pilot to “co-fund” development of a voice-controlled “hybrid radio” prototype combining over-the-air reception with internet connectivity, said EBU Friday. They are demonstrating the prototype at the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, it said. The prototype shows how Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant can be used “to make smart decisions about the best way to listen to a radio station,” it said. Voice commands can determine whether to use over-the-air or streaming to tune the station “based on broadcaster parameters and the available hardware in the device,” it said. EBU and Pilot plan to “release the proof of concept code on a royalty-free basis to manufacturers for use in production implementations of voice assistant devices,” it said.

The global smart speaker market, a $4.3 billion industry last year, is expected to generate $23.3 billion in 2025, said a Friday Allied Market Research report. Market drivers include demand for smart home and multifunctional devices, an uptick in consumer readiness to invest in trending technologies and rising disposable income, but limiting factors are privacy and security concerns and language barriers, it said. Emerging 5G infrastructure and advancement of natural language processing are likely to pave the way for future opportunities in the category, it said. Alexa-based speakers generated the highest revenue in smart speakers in 2017, with two-thirds of the category, but Siri will have the highest growth rate going forward, said Allied.

Owners of Google Assistant-based voice-enabled products can request favorite songs from Pandora Premium and Deezer via Google Assistant as of Monday, Google blogged. Pandora Premium subscribers can search and play favorite songs, albums and playlists by voice, and Deezer subscribers can stream music "hands-free," Google said. They need to link accounts in the Google Home app to play music, it said. Google Home users can trial Pandora Premium for free for three months, and Deezer users are eligible for a 90-day trial depending on region.

Google is advancing on Amazon in the smart speaker race, reported Strategy Analytics Monday. Amazon’s Q2 share of the global smart speaker market slipped to 41 percent from 76 percent in Q2 2017, while Google's share grew to 28 percent from 16 percent, it said. The companies had 69 percent of global smart speaker shipments, down from 90 percent, said analyst David Watkins, attributing shrinking share to growing market competition and the tech giants’ “inability to break into the fast growing Chinese market” dominated by Alibaba, JD.com and Baidu. China has the potential to be a “hugely lucrative market for smart speakers and the voice assistant platforms that power them,” said Watkins, calling Google’s recent $500 million strategic partnership with Chinese ecommerce giant JD.com a sign it doesn’t want to miss the opportunity. Though Google’s and Amazon’s pursuits of volume over margin make it difficult for vendors to enter the market with products sporting similar features, the premium end offers upgrade opportunities for “vendors who can entice consumers with superior build and audio quality,” said Watkins. Early adopters of entry-level smart speakers such as the Echo Dot or Google Home Mini who are looking for a second smart speaker will be likely targets for Google and Amazon, he said. Apple staked out an early lead in the premium smart speaker segment due to a “fiercely loyal fan base and strong momentum” behind Apple Music, said the analyst. But SA expects the higher end smart speaker market to grow and become “much more competitive” as vendors such as Samsung look to capitalize on the voice control wave.

Samsung is sourcing Synaptics digital signal processor chips “to drive its far-field voice requirements” with the Bixby digital assistant (see 1808090034), said Synaptics CEO Rick Bergman on a Thursday earnings call. Samsung didn’t comment Friday. Far-field voice “is one of the most exciting human-interface technologies for the consumer electronics market today,” said Bergman. It carries with it “significant growth opportunities, as voice continues to rapidly proliferate in all major global voice service platforms, including those from Amazon, Google, Baidu and others,” he said.

Do-it-yourself security company Swann announced Google Assistant voice control for its wired surveillance systems. Consumers can ask via voice commands on Google Home and Chromecast to see live video from home security cameras on their TV, the company said Tuesday. A command such as, “OK, Google, show me the front door” brings up a feed from the front-door camera, it said.

BBC Late Night Laugh, a series of nightly radio comedy specials highlighting the talent appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that runs through Aug. 27, launched Friday for smart speakers, including Amazon Alexa, Apple HomePod or Google Home devices, said the broadcaster. “Comedy is hugely popular on smart speakers and we love the idea of people asking for a late night laugh,” said Julia McKenzie, BBC Studios head-radio comedy.

Lenovo’s Smart Display units, which were slated to arrive in stores over the weekend, are the first devices in Google’s new display-based category built around Google Assistant. The Lenovo models will retail for $199 for the 8-inch HD version and $249 for the 10-inch Full HD model, blogged Chris Turkstra, Google Assistant product management director, Thursday. Similar to Amazon’s Echo Show, a screen-based smart device combines the visual experience Google users are familiar with on computing and mobile devices with a voice interface. Turkstra outlined use cases including listening to podcasts and music; watching YouTube; viewing maps, photos and streaming video programs; looking up recipes with step-by-step guidance; and making video calls. The Lenovo devices will be sold at Walmart, BestBuy.com, Amazon.com, Costco.com, SamsClub.com and Lenovo.com. Additional products are coming from partners including JBL and LG, said Turkstra.

A dozen Play-Fi audio products have been Works with Alexa-certified and will receive software upgrades throughout the year to make them Alexa-ready, said DTS Thursday. Users who link an Alexa-compatible Play-Fi product will be able to ask the voice assistant on a system’s primary device to play a song in a specific room or a group of rooms, adjust volume, skip a track, and mute, pause and stop music, said the company. Once audio begins playing, customers use the Play-Fi app to add more products to a streaming session, it said. Products receiving Alexa certification are the Aerix Duet speaker; Klipsch Gate music streamer, PowerGate gateway amplifier and the RW-1, Capital Three and The Three speakers; McIntosh MB50 streaming audio player and RS100 speaker; Onkyo P3 speaker; Phorus PS10 speaker; Pioneer F4 speaker; and Soundcast VG10 outdoor speaker, said DTS. The company didn't respond to questions.

Dish announced integration with Google Assistant for voice control when paired with a Google Home speaker, Android phone or iPhone. Customers can ask the Assistant to set recordings, adjust volume and launch apps including Game Finder, Netflix and Pandora, it said, and use voice commands to navigate, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind and search content based on channel, title, actor or genre. Search results are displayed for Dish programming and Netflix TV shows and movies, it said.