At Innovation Center Denmark’s Sound of Denmark campaign in Silicon Valley, Merus Audio will present a groundbreaking new technology that drastically reduces energy loss in consumer electronics
PALO ALTO, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — October 14, 2013 — After several years of intense product development, Merus Audio is now ready to launch a new amplifier chip to the world’s leading manufacturers of consumer electronics. The ultra-efficient and compact chip will primarily address the Home Audio segment, but the technology will also extend the battery life of portable devices like cell phones.
CEO of Merus Audio, Hans Hasselby-Andersen, will present and demo the amplifier chip MA12070 on October 22 at Sound of Denmark’s panel event open to the public. (info below)
“The demo will mark the important transition from concept to a product ready for customer sampling,” says Hasselby-Andersen, who will use the demo to compare the amplifier chip’s performance with competing technologies in what marks the company’s first public product presentation.
Sound of Denmark is a delegation of Danish audio professionals organized by Innovation Center Denmark in Silicon Valley and Danish Sound, an innovation network representing more than 180 Danish audio companies as well as research communities within the sound domain.
From October 21-24, Sound of Denmark brings the best of Danish audio technology and knowledge to Silicon Valley to explore and foster new relationships, business opportunities, and R&D collaborations. This happens through networking events, workshops and site visits to local audio giants such as Sennheiser and Dolby.
The Danish audio industry is disproportionate to the size of Denmark with Danish hearing aids making up close to 50 percent of global production. Executive Director of Innovation Center Denmark, Camilla Rygaard-Hjalsted recognizes how this pioneering achievement has spurred related Danish research in the field of acoustics:
“Coming out of Denmark right now, we’re seeing world-class research—ranging from human perception of speech and sound, through hearing, loudness, music recognition, and hearing loss to computer aided speech,” she says.
The average yearly growth of the Danish audio sector, from 2005 through the recession to 2012, was at a robust eight percent. Director of Danish Sound, Jan Larsen, sees a huge opportunity in introducing Danish audio knowhow to the global arena:
“We have some very successful Danish audio companies with well-known products and an export share above 90 percent, but we also see global potential in new niche products on the audio market that we can help leverage with initiatives like Sound of Denmark,” says Larsen.
One such niche product is made by Ortofon. The Danish company will showcase a prototype of a new bone conductor that interprets sound by producing vibrations transmitted through the skull to the inner ear where it is perceived as sound. This technology aids those with hearing loss while also benefitting professionals in the security, fire prevention, and law enforcement sectors that need to communicate clearly while keeping the ear unobstructed to surrounding sound.
CTO at Ortofon, Leif Johannsen, sees Sound of Denmark as a unique opportunity to meet developers of future audio products:
”We believe that the quality of Ortofon bone conductors as compared to traditional bone conductors opens up a new world of applications. We need to create the right networks in order to make this happen and this is where Sound of Denmark plays a crucial role,” says Johannsen who looks forward to demoing the bone conductor solution at the showcase event October 22.
The bone conductor is one of the audio products Silicon Valley is tuning into at the moment—especially since Google launched the Google Glass prototype featuring the technology.
Sound of Denmark panel
Sound of Denmark’s panel event in Silicon Valley on October 22 from 6-9pm is free and open to the public with a pre-sign up requirement:
Visit https://soundofdenmark.eventbrite.com/ to sign up.
The event is organized by Innovation Center Denmark and will feature numerous new product and research presentations from Danish companies and scientists as well as U.S. researchers.
The presentations include:
Merus Audio:
The amplifier chip MA12070 from Merus Audio is based on the
company’s patented eximo™ technology that reduces power
losses at typical listening levels by up to a factor of 10 compared to
conventional class-D amplifiers. Amplifier solutions based on the chip
are 1/5th the size of many existing solutions on the market
giving manufacturers unprecedented freedom in designing modern
applications with very tough space constraints. The market for amplifier
chips is estimated at $1.4 billion within the next five years, with
energy efficient amplifiers expected to experience significant growth.
The chip is targeted a wide range of high-volume consumer electronics
applications, including soundbars, docking/wireless speakers, surround
and stereo systems, TVs, and portable applications.
