Onkyo U.S.A. is shipping two high-performance AV receivers, it said Wednesday: the 9.2-channel TX-NR797 ($699) and the 7.2-channel TX-NR696 ($599). Both THX Certified Select products support Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound formats, 3D sound visualization technologies, audio distribution and 4K HDR. The higher end model is the first under the Onkyo brand to include Imax Enhanced with DTS:X immersive audio, said the company. The receivers’ stereo assign mode can switch playback from front left and right to height speakers or surround/surround back, depending on configuration, it said. Denon and Marantz parent company Sound United said earlier this month it agreed to buy the Onkyo and Pioneer audio businesses from Onkyo Corp.; the deal is expected to close in Q3 (see 1905150043).

Voiz AiRadio, a soon-to-launch Indiegogo project, is billed as a tabletop radio designed to deliver “audiophile sound quality” for streaming music. Voiz’s Amazon Alexa-enabled AiRadio was voiced by acousticians at Andover Audio and is scheduled to make its public debut in Q3 in a three-model lineup, said the company Wednesday. An Indiegogo campaign is due to kick off next month when consumers will be able to order the AiRadio Duo VR-80 for $194, a 41 percent discount off the suggested retail price, said the company. Voiz hopes to raise $60,000 in crowdfunding to cover development costs. CEO Hiro Ogura, who developed and designed products for brands including Onkyo, Emerson Radio and Aurora Impex, said Voiz’s goal is to create a proprietary artificial intelligence platform for entertainment products.

The Eurovision Song Contest is serving as a testing ground for Next Generation Audio in the MPEG-H audio format, said the European Broadcasting Union Thursday. Content is being made available to broadcasters for testing via the Eurovision FINE network, with on-site demos available to journalists and EBU members in Tel Aviv. NGA is said to deliver an immersive aural experience that can be personalized to any home or portable device. Broadcasters produce a mix once in a “deliver-anywhere” scenario for all possible playback situations, it said. With NGA, audio mixers will be able to adjust the relative volumes of the performers, commentary and background ambience or switch between different languages, EBU said. Headphone users will be able to experience 3D binaural sound, and NGA-enabled sound bars can experience audio “on all sides," it said. Consumers will be able to tailor audio to their taste or need: the hearing challenged can boost commentary while reducing background sounds, for instance. EBU said it’s working to ensure that broadcasters can evolve production and delivery workflows easily, “in an open and codec-independent way,” to serve the growing number of NGA-capable devices. The three standardized solutions for NGA are MPEG-H Audio, AC-4 and DTS-UHD. While MPEG-H Audio was used for the parallel immersive and object-based audio production and transmission in the Eurovision trial, that content will be made available to EBU members for further demonstrations and trials, said EBU. Its technology partners for demos at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 are Ateme, Fraunhofer IIS, Junger Audio, Sennheiser, Solid State Logic and Telos Alliance.

Qualcomm announced support Thursday for Google Assistant and Google Fast Pair on the Qualcomm Smart Headset platform. Smart Headset, based on Qualcomm’s QCC5100 series low-power Bluetooth audio chips, includes hardware and software required for manufacturers to create differentiated wireless stereo earbuds and headsets with support for Google Assistant for various product tiers and categories, said the company. The reference design supports push-button activation for Google Assistant, which connects to the Google Assistant app running on a smartphone. The platform comprises processing capability, connectivity options, voice assistant interfaces and premium audio technologies.

Paradigm is selling through its inventory of Play-Fi products while “looking for other options” for a multiroom wireless audio technology, Joey Perfito, central regional sales manager, told us at the ProSource spring conference in San Antonio. The company's product development team is studying options, he said. On the change of strategy, “Play-Fi sounds great when it works,” but the product “wasn’t as reliable as we hoped,” Perfito said, saying Play-Fi didn’t address issues including connectivity, control and stability that industry demanded. With Sonos remaining the industry leader in wireless multiroom audio, “it doesn’t matter how good your product sounds,” he said. Dealers report they like Sonos because they “don’t have to go back and fix it, because it works,” he said. On the possibility Paradigm would partner with a competitor for a wireless multiroom audio solution, Perfito mentioned Heos, Bluesound and Sonos, saying: “I’m sure that there’s opportunities somewhere.” On what dealers are asking for, he said, they want something that works with control systems, "so that’s what we’re trying to give them.” Once next-generation HDMI chips are available for Anthem’s AV receivers, Play-Fi will no longer be an offered feature, he said. Paradigm is still supporting the platform, he said. Play-fi parent Xperi didn’t comment Thursday.

Denon launched a trio of AV receivers with Dolby Atmos height virtualization technology, Heos wireless multiroom music streaming, an improved setup experience and voice control support for Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and Google Assistant. The top S-Series model is the 7.2-channel AVR-S950H ($599), with eight inputs and two outputs, Bluetooth, and support for MP3, AAC, Hi-Res WAV, FLAC, ALAC and DSD files via the front-panel USB port. The 7.2-channel S750H ($499) has six inputs and one output, and the 5.2-channel S650H ($399) has five inputs, one output. All three models have Enhanced audio return channel and support the latest lossless and 3D audio formats for audio transmission directly from the TV to the AV receiver through via HDMI. All HDMI ports support HDCP 2.3 copy protection, it said. An auto low latency mode is optimized for Xbox One when paired with a compatible TV; other TV features include 4K video upscaling, 4K Ultra HD/60 Hz full-rate passthrough and support for 4:4:4 color resolution, BT.2020, HDR10, Dolby Vision and Hybrid Log Gamma.

Global home audio equipment shipments grew 20 percent year on year in Q4, said Futuresource Friday. Amazon topped the leader board, taking the post from Harman, which dropped to second, but Harman’s strong performance in Q1 and Q3 pushed it to top audio vendor for the year, said analyst Guy Hammett. Global home audio shipments reached nearly 59 million shipments in Q4, representing $6.8 billion. Integrated voice assistant product shipments climbed 42 percent in the quarter from 28 percent growth in the year-ago quarter. Smart speakers are driving audio demand in developed markets, up 42 percent in North America and 73 percent in Western Europe, it said. North America saw 12 percent growth across all audio product segments.

Savant introduced powered architectural speakers with Power over Ethernet connectivity. Each powered Savant Micro Aperture PoE speaker can run up to three passive speakers and will self-regulate output power according to the PoE switch or injector being used. Because each connected unit is individually controlled, its configuration can be changed depending on application, said the company. Speakers could play music during the day and then become surround-channel speakers for a theater system at night with a single button press, Savant said. The in-ceiling Micro Aperture speakers come in three versions: a self-powered PoE speaker, companion PoE satellite speaker and a passive speaker that interfaces with traditional audio systems.

“Simplistic setup” is among the “hallmarks” of four new TCL sound bars just introduced at retail, blogged the TV maker Monday. The Alto 5 is “optimized” for TVs 43 inches and above, while the Alto 7 is best paired with larger sets, said TCL. Step-up “plus” versions of each model are available with built-in subwoofers and enhanced audio return channel HDMI 2.1 support for hi-res music and object-based 3D surround (see 1701040065), it said. The sound bars “are acoustically tuned to reveal the best details whether you are listening to music or enjoying movies,” said TCL. Pricing ranges $77.99-$179.99.

Parasound added a 110 watt-per-channel power amplifier stage to the NewClassic 200 Pre preamplifier to make it the company’s most affordable integrated amp, it said Thursday. The $1,195 component, dubbed the 200 Integrated, will be available this summer, and the $895 preamp will remain in the line, it said. Features of the integrated amp include analog bass management for pairing with compact speakers and a powered subwoofer; a moving-magnet/moving-coil phono stage; two RCA line-level inputs; USB, coaxial and optical digital inputs; a home theater bypass; and a front-panel line-level input with an automatic 12-dB gain increase to boost sound quality from portable devices, said the company.