CES 2017: HARMAN Unveils Latest Innovations in Car Audio

HARMAN is debuting its latest Car Audio innovations at CES 2017. Drawing from its 60-plus years of experience in acoustic design and signal processing, HARMAN is demonstrating updates to its Car Audio solutions – the HARMAN SUMMIT Next smart audio platform and the seamless, scalable HARMAN Voyager Next lifestyle audio and infotainment platform. Both solutions are designed with a strong focus on intelligent, personalized, and connected in-car experiences for consumers.

As self-driving cars quickly move from concept to reality, consumers are expecting more advanced in-car technology that integrates effortlessly into their lives. For automakers, this presents an opportunity to leverage premium audio solutions to elevate the connected in-car experience and reimagine the way consumers interact with their vehicles to attract the next generation of drivers. HARMAN’s SUMMIT Next smart audio and Voyager Next solutions draw on technologies across HARMAN’s Lifestyle, Connected Car and Professional Solutions divisions to push the boundaries even further, spearheading the evolution of the vehicle cabin.

“We are currently at an inflection point within the auto industry, where the passenger experience is becoming just as important to consumers as speed and performance,” says Michael Mauser, President, Lifestyle Audio for HARMAN. “The availability of autonomous features is reinventing the way people spend time in their car. Our strong heritage and expertise in audio and acoustics innovation are playing an important role in supporting the evolving vehicle interior and can now be used as a tool to deliver intelligent, personalized and connected experiences far beyond just great sound, but also enhanced safety, comfort and entertainment. This makes HARMAN uniquely positioned to reshape how consumers interact with their future vehicles and to improve personal transportation through smart audio solutions.”

HARMAN SUMMIT Next: An Elevated Experience for Luxury
Unveiled last year at CES 2016, HARMAN is showcasing the evolution of its innovative SUMMIT Next smart audio solution that offers HARMAN’s highest level of acoustic performance coupled with intelligent expandable features. Targeted specifically for the luxury market, SUMMIT Next smart audio gives automakers the ability to create unprecedented personalized luxury experience in the vehicle, while implementing a truly scalable system strategy with connected capabilities to enable over-the-air updates via digital stores or companion apps for truly future-proof feature sets. Additionally, the system provides a high-quality listening experience, while simultaneously delivering proprietary HARMAN DSP-based technologies such as Individual Sound Zones (ISZ), QuantumLogic Immersion 3D Surround Sound, Clari-Fi music reconstruction technology, HALOsonic noise management solutions, and the customized, acoustically modeled environments of Virtual Venues.

New for the HARMAN SUMMIT Next smart audio platform is an exciting portfolio of solutions that will transform how people engage with their vehicles, creating new centers for entertainment and productivity by leveraging the very latest in acoustic and connected technology advances, including:

• Ambisonics Escape – Next-generation acoustic processing that can turn a vehicle into a personal sanctuary by transporting drivers from a city traffic jam to their choice of serene natural surroundings through their audio system. Ambisonics Escape sonically recreates actual environments such as the beach, a forest, waterfalls and more through a full 360-degree sound field.
• Dynamic Sound Stage (DSS) – A responsive spatial soundstage connects the music to the drive quite literally – following curves in the road, recreating the acoustics of tunnels, even reacting to acceleration and deceleration. The result is a listening experience that is as varied and engaging as the journey itself.
• In-Car Conferencing – Ambisonic processing spatially renders audio from in-car calls to match video locations in a futuristic conferencing experience to give the sensation of being in a real meeting room from the comfort and privacy of the vehicle cabin.
• In-Car Theatre – The most theatre-like viewing experience ever achieved in a vehicle combines HARMAN’s QuantumLogic Immersion professional movie theatre audio processing with segment leading video, bringing passengers closer to a real movie experience than ever before.

Designed specifically for the next generation of luxury buyers, HARMAN SUMMIT Next smart audio delivers a new multi-sensory audio experience that remains unmatched in both today and tomorrow’s automotive market.

HARMAN Voyager Next: Driving New Experiences for Millennials On The Go
Voyager Next, the latest generation of HARMAN’s award-winning Voyager consumer platform for small vehicles, debuts as an all-in-one audio and connected car Head Unit solution designed to meet the needs of today’s ‘on-the-go’ lifestyle. Designed specifically with the next-generation of millennial consumers in mind, Voyager Next combines HARMAN’s premium audio and connected car technologies into one tailored solution, adding innovative application, loudspeaker, and subwoofer solutions to provide an experience that meets their expectations for great audio quality while connecting them to their daily lives.

Moving beyond traditional audio to capture a fully integrated entertainment experience, Voyager Next adds customizable in-vehicle lighting along with connectivity and compatibility with in-home and portable devices. For automakers, Voyager Next provides the ability to offer cost effective and easy to implement premium audio solutions for the entry-level vehicle segment. It also provides new levels of intelligent personalization and connectivity to the in-vehicle experience through advanced technologies, including:

• HARMAN Display Audio – An embedded, connected head-unit solution that brings the best of consumers’ smartphone experiences into the car enabling music, navigation and other capabilities. It supports leading industry platforms including Apple CarPlay, Google AndroidAuto, Baidu CarLife, and SmartDeviceLink; giving users several ways to connect any smartphone to the car regardless of make or OS.
• Voyager Next Connect Companion App – A custom smartphone app that is mirrored and controlled by the Head Unit using SmartDeviceLink technology, allowing users to seamlessly customize an in-car listening and lighting experience including mirroring their choice of listening locations from the studio to the stadium.
• HARMAN Proprietary Micro Speaker Technology – An array of next-generation micro speakers that work with Dirac Panorama processing technology to create big sound, with a wide soundstage and distinct, stable center image, from a small space.
• Dual-Core Micro Sub-Woofers – Innovative technology shrinks the form factor of a traditional subwoofer by nearly 80 percent, allowing them to be eliminated from the door structure, while offering a more flexible system architecture option that reduces overall vehicle weight.
• Voyager Next Sub – A full range portable audio system that can be popped into and out of the vehicle for seamless listening on the go and lets users pair with multiple compatible smart audio devices for power concert-like sound on the go.

With its advanced connected architecture, HARMAN Voyager Next completely redefines the conventions of traditional automotive audio and connectivity, opening it up to new audiences, price points and form factors.

HARMAN at CES 2017
Visit the HARMAN showcase during CES 2017 for demonstrations of the company’s full portfolio of connected car and lifestyle audio systems that enable the connected life. The HARMAN experience showcase is located at the Hard Rock Hotel.