Apple have launched their entry into the voice assistant and multi room music into the ring with the Apple Homepod.
The new Homepod is a Siri enabled speaker and microphone that works in a similar way to the Echo and Home devices from Amazon and Google but also includes a high specification speaker system. This could be used as an alternative to Sonos Play range of wireless hifi speakers.
The Apple homepod page https://www.apple.com/homepod/ waxes lyrical extensively about the sound quality and audio technologies in use for the HomePod, it's quite clear that they are taking aim at the whole home / multi room audio market.
Audio Technology
- High-excursion woofer with custom amplifier
- Array of seven horn-loaded tweeters, each with its own custom amplifier
- Six-microphone array for far-field Siri and room sensing
- Internal low-frequency calibration microphone for automatic bass correction
- Direct and ambient audio beamforming
- Transparent studio-level dynamic processing
It's an exciting development and we look forward to the implementation, the Homepod is available from December - We'd like to see what sources it will allow for music - there are rumours that it will be Apple Music only, that would be a shame.