Wolfson Audio Card from element14 - High Definition Audio for the Raspberry Pi®
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Wolfson Audio Card from element14 - High Definition Audio for the Raspberry Pi®

High quality audio playback, stereo recording and voice control inspiration for a soundwave of new Pi innovations

London & Edinburgh, UK. 11 March 2014 -Raspberry Pi® owners can now use new high quality audio capabilities as the inspiration for their latest Pi innovations thanks to the new Wolfson Audio Card available exclusively from element14. The card brings both line-in, line-out headphone and headset support, on-board stereo microphones, and digital audio S/PDIF functionality onto the Raspberry Pi® for the first time, opening up a wide range of exciting new possibilities such as using the device to create a voice controlled wireless home media network capable of running 24-bit “better than CD quality” music playback.

The Wolfson Audio Card has been developed by Wolfson Microelectronics, the audio expert that has more than two billion chips designed in to many of the world’s leading consumer devices, from high-end audiophile equipment brands such as Linn and Astell&Kern, through to popular mass market devices like the Samsung GALAXY range of smartphones.

There are hundreds of applications based around four key features that can inspire developers to create and post their ideas on the recently launched Pi Projects resource page:

PLAY

TALK

RECORD

SHARE

The Wolfson Audio Card costs $33.62 and is available to buy exclusively from Farnell element14 in Europe, CPC in the UK and Ireland, Newark element14 and MCM in North America and element14 in Asia Pacific.

To celebrate the launch, Wolfson and element14 have teamed up with HDtracks, the source for studio master quality music downloads, to offer Wolfson Audio Card customers a free five-track 96kHz/24-bit quality music playlist*, to show off the high quality audio playback capabilities of the Wolfson Audio Card.

“The Raspberry Pi® has been a phenomenal success, bringing affordable computing and software programming to a new generation of innovators. With the Audio Card, Wolfson is delighted to provide a new accessory that opens up a whole new world of applications to the Pi community,” commented Alistair Banham, Senior VP & GM of Custom Solutions at Wolfson Microelectronics. “Working with element14 has given Wolfson the opportunity to bring more high quality audio to the Raspberry Pi® and enable developers, students and hobbyists to experience great audio quality when developing applications.”

David Shen, CTO at element14 said: “The Wolfson Audio Card brings an incredibly exciting audio development capability to the millions of people who already use the Raspberry Pi®.  With its comprehensive feature set, ease of use and extreme audio quality, designers will have a completely new audio toolset from which to work from”.

At the heart of the Wolfson Audio Card is the WM5102 chip, a highly-integrated Audio Hub which can be found in many smartphones, tablets and other portable audio devices today, and which enables high resolution audio playback such as that normally found on high-end audio equipment. The Audio Card also includes Wolfson’s WM8804 high performance consumer mode S/PDIF digital interface transceiver and dual WM7220 Wolfson digital MEMS microphones for high quality audio capture and record.  

Raspberry Pi is a registered trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation

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Notes to Editors:

*Free HDtracks playlist track listing now available to download from the Wolfson Audio Card community page from element14:

All tracks are 96kHz/24-bit quality. Courtesy of Chesky Records and HDtracks.com. All rights reserved.  Use code: Raspberry15 to receive 15% off your first Hi Res Music Download order from HDtracks – The Ultimate Hi Res Music Download Source with the finest hi res new and classic catalogue releases from every major label across all genres, featuring all of your favourite artists. YOU CAN HEAR THE DIFFERENCE. Expires December 31, 2014.  One time use per customer. Territory restrictions may apply.  

About Wolfson Microelectronics plc

Wolfson Microelectronics plc is a global leader in the supply of high performance, mixed-signal semiconductor devices and audio solutions to the consumer electronics market. In the home, in the office and on the move, Wolfson’s innovative technology can be found at the heart of many of the world’s leading digital consumer goods, including premier hi-fi equipment, smartphones, mobile phones, tablet computers, MP3 players, televisions, digital still cameras and gaming. 

The company’s headquarters is located in Edinburgh, UK. Wolfson’s customers are located worldwide, and so is Wolfson, with design centres, sales offices, applications teams and engineering expertise across Europe, the US, Australia and Asia.

Wolfson Microelectronics plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: WLF.L).

For more information about Wolfson Microelectronics, please visit: http://www.wolfsonmicro.com

Wolfson PR contact:

Mona Ghobadi

EML Wildfire

Tel: +44 (0) 208 408 8000

Email: Email Contact

 

Laura Moore

Wolfson Microelectronics plc

Tel: +44 (0)131 272 7000

Email: Email Contact

 

About element14

Launched in June 2009, element14 is the first information portal, collaborative community and electronics store specifically built for electronic design engineers. The community recently unveiled its element14 knode, a unique automated platform that enables engineers to quickly research, design, develop and prototype in a single, intelligent environment. element14 is an innovative offering from Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl), FTSE 250, a leader in multi-channel electronics distribution trading throughout Europe (Farnell), the Americas (Newark) and Asia Pacific (element14). The company had group sales of £952m last year.

 

For news updates from Premier Farnell visit:

Premier Farnell News Centre – www.premierfarnell.com/media-centre
Twitter - @element14news; @element14
YouTube – element14
Facebook – /element14page

Email: Email Contact

 

PR agency contact:

Darren Willsher / Mona Ghobadi

EML Wildfire

Tel: +44 (0)20 8408 8000

Email: Email Contact / Email Contact

 

element14 PR contacts:

Jen Cooke

PR Manager, Europe and Global

Tel: +44 (0) 113 279 0101

Email:  Email Contact 

 

Christina Loh

Communications, APAC

Tel: + 65 6671 8769

Email: Email Contact

 

William Polk

PR and Social Media manager, North America

Tel: +1 773 907 5199

Email: Email Contact 

 

Ken Leitch

Global Head of PR

Premier Farnell

Tel: +44(0) 207 851 4145

Email: Email Contact

 

About HDtracks®

HDtracks® is the ultimate hi res music download source offering 24-bit master quality titles from every major label and distributor as well as 100s of Indies across all genres, rock, jazz, classical, country, R&B, and more, featuring bestselling new releases as well as iconic catalog titles. HDtracks offers a variety of format choices, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, and ALAC. Visit us at www.hdtracks.com and experience music the way it was meant to be heard.

 

About Chesky Records

Chesky Records is a Grammy Award winning audiophile record label www.chesky.com