The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announces LE Audio that promises to enhance Bluetooth audio performance and which enables audio sharing.

LE Audio will operate on the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) radio whilst Classic Audio operates on the Bluetooth Classic radio. LE Audio will support development of the same audio products such as Classic Audio, whilst introducing new features, one of which is audio sharing.

Bluetooth Audio Sharing can be personal or location-based. With personal audio sharing, people will be able to share their Bluetooth audio experience with others around them; for example, sharing music from a smartphone with family and friends. With location-based audio sharing, public venues such as airports, bars, gyms, cinemas, and conference centers can now share Bluetooth audio that augments the visitor experience.

“Location-based audio sharing holds the potential to change the way we experience the world around us,” said Peter Liu of Bose Corporation and member of the Bluetooth SIG Board of Directors. “For example, people will be able to select the audio being broadcast by silent TVs in public venues, and places like theaters and lecture halls will be able to share audio to assist visitors with hearing loss as well as provide audio in multiple languages.”

LE Audio has Low Complexity Communication Codec (LC3) for higher quality and lower power, even at low data rates.

“Developers will be able to leverage this power savings to create products that can provide longer battery life or, in cases where current battery life is enough, reduce the form factor by using a smaller battery,” said said Manfred Lutzky, Head of Audio for Communications at Fraunhofer IIS.

In addition, there is the feature such as multi-stream audio for better performing earbuds, where transmissions of multiple, independent, synchronised audio streams are possible between audio source devices, such as smartphones and one or more audio sink devices.