Amazon has started to launch rockets that contain the satellites for their Project Kuiper low-earth-orbit satellite system which is expected to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink system.
The first of the rockets, an Atlas V rocket associated with the United Launch Alliance ran by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has blasted off with 27 of the Project Kuiper satellites on April 9 US time. Amazon has yet to make contact with the satellites in order to have the system up and running.
This low-earth-orbit satellite platform is expected to compete with the Starlink platform for Internet service to rural and remote areas, and could be seen as of value for people who don’t want to have anything to do with Elon Musk after what has been happening with the USA.
The initial satellite modems for the Kuiper platform have been designed and are in manufacture with a 7” transportable with an expected 100Mbps throughput, a fixed-install 11” with an expected 400Mbps throughput for home use and a 1Gbps 19” fixed-install unit for government / business users or telcos.
The competitive market that is to come about will hopefully lead to innovation when it comes to fixed, mobile or transportable satellite Internet. This is expected to benefit civilian use cases including maritime and aviation use cases but is also seen as being of benefit to defence / military use cases. I also expect to see these systems being used in larger towns as a backup or load-balancing Internet service for government / business users and other advanced Internet users.
Personally, I would also expect other countries or country clusters to run other low-earth-orbit satellite telecommunications / Internet services to increase competition, innovation and sovereign capability in this field.
JBL Tour One M3 Bluetooth ANC headset – an example of an Auracast-ready headset for silent disco use
There is a significant trend towards “silent discos” and similar “silent” entertainment events where participants wear supplied headphones to hear the audio content for the event.
The headphone-based silent disco
Such events take place in areas or situations where the playing of loud music is not really tolerated, such as to host the events past noise curfews or to host the events in a railway station, museums or similar places where loud music seems out of place. There are even people who run silent disco tours where the music is from a portable device but fed through a silent-disco setup and the participants follow the leader, dancing to the beat.
The current technology is based on 800-900MHz UHF analogue radio technology which can support the concurrent operation of three audio channels of stereo content. This would allow three performers to play in one of these events with the user operating a selector switch on their headphones to choose whichever performer they want to hear.
But these events require the hosts to acquire transmitter and headset kits and supply the headsets to the guests who want to participate. I even posed a question about Bluetooth Classic and its possibility in this use case but that technology is fraught with issues like latency which can impact dancing or following movie soundtracks.
Similar approaches that allowed users to use their own equipment
Another similar arrangement that has operated for a long time was to use a low-powered AM or FM transmitter in the classic drive-in cinemas to transmit the movie soundtrack through the car radios installed in the audience’s cars. Here, when the audience members arrived at the drive-in, they tuned their car radio or a portable radio to a particular frequency to hear the film’s soundtrack. This was in lieu of the wired speakers that used to be clipped to the car sun-visors which was initially the way to get the soundtrack to the cars.
It was even possible for this to work for those drive-in cinemas that ran up to three or four screens where they could show multiple films concurrently. This was facilitated with a transmitter for each screen and the audience tuned in to the relevant frequency for the screen they were viewing.
The use of low-powered AM or FM transmitters at the drive-in cinemas was effectively a “BYO equipment” approach to distributing sound that accompanied an entertainment over a small area. This was thanks to having the viewers use their car or portable radios to hear the soundtrack.
Similarly it extended to street activations, parades, fireworks displays and similar events that local radio stations ran or participated in during the 1980s and 1990s. Here, the participating radio stations broadcasted the music for that activity such as a synchronised soundtrack for a fireworks display or the dance music for a “dance in the streets” activation.
Participants brought their portable radios along or showed up in their cars and they tuned their radios to the station to hear the event soundtrack. Promotional material leading up to the event would contain a line like “Bring your ghetto blaster or Walkman and tune in to enjoy the event”. In some cases with streets that had retailers like cafes or take-out food shops that traded through the event, these retailers would tune their radios to the participating station so as to be in on the action. Some events that had a stage may have operated a PA system at the stage with the participant-supplied audio equipment being about extending the sound beyond the stage area such as along the street.
These kinds of events flourished thanks to the popularity of decent car, portable and personal audio equipment that was developed through the late 1970s and the 1980s and people wanting to get the most out of this equipment.
This scenario allowed the soundtrack for the event to be extended across the radio station’s broadcast area which can be a bonus for some events like fireworks displays that have wider areas of relevance. But it may not work well for events that have a focused area of relevance.
The drive-in cinema with its low-power radio transmitter and the local radio station that is involved in and providing the music soundtrack for that street activation or fireworks display were about providing right-sized audio coverage using equipment supplied by the participants. For example, use of a Walkman radio with headphones allowed for the soundtrack to be followed by a person wherever they went or maintain better focus on the soundtrack in a relatively noisy environment.
Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast
The newly-developed Bluetooth LE Audio technology has opened up two key features that benefit these situations.
Firstly, Bluetooth LE Audio offers improved latency that has made it acceptable for online video games, video conferencing and similar latency-sensitive use cases. For example, the Bluetooth link doesn’t introduce any extra echo or delay in the sound during a video conference or you aren’t placed at a disadvantage when playing that real-time video game.
Then there is Auracast which Bluetooth LE Audio brought in to allow one-to-many audio broadcasting using Bluetooth technology. This is pitched at assisted-listening setups in meetings, cinema, houses of worship and similar environments where you want focused listening.
In the context of silent discos and similar use cases, there was a demo event that took place in Japan to prove Auracast’s worth in this use case. Here, the event known as the Silent Awa Odori worked similar to a silent disco using wireless headphones and earbuds rather than the traditional approach of a PA system playing the music loud. This avoided the intrusiveness of loud music on other non-participant communities.
The arrangement used Auracast to distribute the sound and allowed users to use their own Auracast-capable headphones or earbuds. There were two “channels” with one being the Awa Odori folk music and the other being sets performed by local DJs. It became a way to demonstrate what Auracast can do in this use case: many participants using their own devices to listen to the event’s soundtrack; support for two or more different soundtracks that are run concurrently with a seamless switchover at the user’s device; having the music perfectly synchronised thus providing a coherent experience for the participants.
This is very similar to the typical silent disco use case where it’s primarily about dancing to the music played through multiple sets of headphones with the idea of the multiple dancers dancing to the same beat at the same time. But it could be about supporting multiple events such as at a music festival.
Taking it further
With the likes of JBL offering Auracast-capable speakers including the first widely-available Auracast-capable party speakers, I see the concept being taken further. Here, you don’t need to focus on the “silent” aspect of these events but have hybrid events that use speakers and headphones but are focused in small areas. This can be about using multiple appropriately-sized Auracast-capable speakers or Auracast-capable receive adaptors connected to appropriately-sized sound systems to provide the right amount of sound coverage in an area. Here, you are using Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast as a wireless audio backbone from the source to the sound systems or speakers.
The JBL PartyBox Club 120 is one of the first party speakers to support Auracast and can come into its own for right-sized audio coverage
The JBL speaker example is one that highlights Bluetooth audio-device manufacturers refreshing their audio device ranges with Auracast-capable Bluetooth silicon over these next few years. This doesn’t just apply to headphones and earbuds but to speakers and audio equipment like radios or amplifiers that have Bluetooth receive functionality.
Another direction that I see being put up is hybrid events that combine the use of on-site speakers and wireless headsets or low-powered wirelessly-linked speakers. This is more so for events where there is an emphasis on a temporary setup and there is less of a want to deal with extra cables.
The first example would be a dance party that is intended to play after a noise curfew whereupon the main speakers are shut down at the curfew time and people listen to and dance to the music through their Auracast-capable Bluetooth headsets or earbuds. Or it can be about extending the sound to other areas in a larger venue using wireless speakers that have the right sound-reproduction requirements for those areas like lesser power output and bass response for smaller rooms. The latter example may also be about having a DJ or musician perform at one location and subsequently at another location but the sound is amplified in both locations or always at the secondary location.
The second example would highlight outdoor movie setups where supplementary headsets and speakers are used to augment the movie experience, whether there is an on-site speaker system or not for the soundtrack. Here, this would be about the use of headphones or small Bluetooth speakers local to the listener’s area to provide improved intelligibility for the movie’s dialogue in high-noise environments. It can also be about movie setups that run multiple soundtracks like multilingual audio, audio description or director’s commentary tracks where the audience member can choose the soundtrack that suits their needs.
To make Auracast work better
At the moment, the theoretical maximum operating range for mains-powered Auracast transmit adaptors is 100m to 200m. This is compared to the silent-disco setups currently in operation that work on the UHF waveband and have a 500m operating range.
One feature being worked on by Bluetooth SIG for as an evolution of Auracast is to have it provide support for repeater or multi-transmitter setups that allow for wider coverage with the same programme sources that are provided through a primary transmitter. This can be in the form of a series of transmitters that cover an area but have a backhaul using a wired or different wireless technology, or a repeater that works from another Auracast transmitter. The latter situation could be supported as part of a Bluetooth speaker’s or receive adaptor’s function set which would come in handy where hybrid events are being hosted.
The user experience would require that there be a seamless handover between different transmitters running the same programme source akin to a cellular phone setup or properly-configured Wi-Fi network and that there isn’t any difference in latency when a user moves between different transmitters. This would be a key issue for repeater setups where there is the risk of latency being introduced by a repeater. As well, if a setup is about multiple soundtracks, there would be the requirement to spread all soundtracks offered through that particular Auracast setup across all transmitters or repeaters.
Another goal again being worked on as part of the evolution of Bluetooth LE Audio is what I would describe as Bluetooth audio’s “Holy Grail”. That is to provide a lossless stereo audio feed with an equivalent standard to CD audio or, better still, master-grade audio. Similarly, there would be another “Holy Grail” multichannel requirement to support surround sound to at least Dolby Digital 5.1 channel standards. This could at least facilitate multiple-speaker surround sound setups that use Bluetooth LE as a backbone.
The plans to support multiple transmitters in an Auracast setup and to open Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast for the two “Holy Grail” setups – lossless CD-grade or master-grade stereo audio or multichannel spatial or surround-sound setups is being made as part of the standard’s future directions.
As well, Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast would need to be supported within the automotive audio scene, whether that is through equipment installed by the vehicle builder or as an aftermarket option. This would come in to its own with the drive-in cinema use case as a digital substitute to the FM transmitter solution used in these environments. It may also be used as a means to have Auracast-based audio-sharing serve to stream multimedia content in to a car-audio setup on an ad-hoc basis. The classic example for this is to allow the equivalent of the former practice of a passenger bringing along a tape or CD to play in the car’s stereo in order to share it with the driver and other passengers during a car journey.
But the use of Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast in the silent disco and similar use cases could demonstrate itself as another use beyond satisfying accessibility requirements for a venue.
There is an effort taking place in Europe to create a strong European-focused search engine that supports European languages and wishes, This effort, known as European Search Perspective, is a joint venture between Qwant and Ecosia but works outside of Ecosia’s stewardship-driven business model which means it can raise its own funds from outside investors.
It is part of a Europe-wide effort to create digital sovereignty for regular computing services that Europeans depend on in their personal and business lives and has been effectively facilitated by recent EU legislation to effectively limit the dominant powers of the American Big Tech companies.
The non-profit European Search Perspective effort will provide European digital sovereignty when it comes to online search facilities with its own European-based Webcrawler and index database. This will be a privacy-focused search engine with an emphasis on European values.
The initial results will be used to populate the Ecosia and Qwant search engines but will be open to other independent search engines, AI and similar advanced tech. That would lead to the establishment of European search platforms and AI setups like voice-driven search for smart-speaker, in-car and similar setups.
The first results from this search engine are expected by around the Northern Summer of 2025 with such results appearing in French and German. This is because these languages are the two most common languages used across Continental Europe and are the native languages of Europe’s main economies.
A key issue that people and companies currently find with using independent search engines is that most such engines are working as metasearch engines that use established search data and Webcrawlers, especially Google’s and Microsoft’s resources. The European Search Perspective could allow independent search engines to create their own infrastructure or use European-based infrastructure to detach from Big Tech properly. This could lead to European autonomy for AI and advanced search setups — think of your B&O smart speaker or your BMW car’s voice-driven search working purely from European results.
Personally, I see this as the Airbus or Arianespace of search and allied technologies where those companies represented Europe viably when it came to aerospace technology.
A significant direction for artificial intelligence, especially advanced AI like generative AI, is to have the AI processes performed on the same device or within the same premises as the users who will benefit from it.
This can be considered as part of edge computing because it involves the pre-processing of data before it is sent to a cloud-driven AI platform or post-processing of data coming back from a cloud-driven AI platform.
What is desireable about this is energy efficiency for cloud-based AI, reduced data transfer requirements or assurance of user privacy, corporate confidentiality and data sovereignty due to the minimum amount of data processed in an online environment. Apple even takes this further by running a private cloud specific to each Apple platform user to cater for more intense processing that can’t be performed on the device itself.
On-device and on-premises AI relies primarily on a smaller language model compared to the large language models that cloud-based AI services like ChatGPT rely on. Here they are focused on the data that exists on or is likely to come in to the machine or the logical network. Here, this cam allow for improved data management or permit a custom language model that represents personal or corporate desires.
Why on-device and on-premises AI
Samsung Galaxy AI representing on-device artificial intelligence on Android mobile devices
A key desire is data security and end-user privacy. Here the data never leaves the device or premises for artificial-intelligence / machine-learning processing. This satisfies business and industry compliance expectations like privacy, corporate confidentiality and data sovereignty requirements.
Another benefit is improved performance and personalisation when it comes to artificial-intelligence processing and machine learning. Here, the processing takes place on a local machine thus avoiding the use of oversubscribed cloud computing services that can underperform under load. The AI language model ends up being highly personalised thus becoming lean.
Apple iPhone 16 Series – first iOS device with on-device AI processing
There is reduced energy consumption compared to sending the data out to cloud-computing data centres. You also see efficient use of telecommunications links due to smaller amounts of data being sent using them as well as seeing efficient use of cloud-computing services. Another key benefit to see is improved service resilience because you aren’t heavily dependent on online resources – what if the network link fails.
Hybrid (cloud+on-device / on-premises) AI setups can allow for more sophisticated artificial-intelligence / machine-learning processing and working with multiple custom environments. This is due to having a lot of the data handling done locally before it is submitted or after results are received.
On-device AI processing
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X 2-in-1 laptop with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite silicon – implementing on-device AI under Windows 11 for ARM microarchitecture
On-device AI is about having the AI data handled by the same device that is to make use of the data. This is facilitated through either a third processor called a neural processing unit (NPU) or a very powerful general processor that sets aside processor cores for neural processing to answer AI tasks.
A good analogy to think of are some NAS units that have a graphics processor in addition to their primary CPU. Here, these devices use the graphics processor for accelerated datatype translation like converting multimedia files in to other formats. or similar processing tasks.
There will also be an expectation to have a lot of RAM and storage capacity on these devices. This is something that is being answered easily thanks to Moore’s Law where cost of increased storage and RAM is being reduced significantly.
Such setups can be facilitated either on regular computers or mobile computing devices like smartphones and tablets.
On-premises AI processing
Dell has offered an XPS 13 laptop with Intel Lunar Lake Core Ultra CPU which has on-device AI processing for Windows 11 under IA microarchitecture
The on-premises AI approach would rely on a server or NAS on the same logical network as the end-users to process the AI data. This would come in to its own with on-premises or hybrid cloud computing setups where the desire is to keep the important data on the user’s premises.
This could represent a server or NAS that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to make sense of a data set stored therein; or a server or NAS could perform AI tasks for client computers that don’t have on-device AI abilities. This can even lead to the creation of local chatbots that supply answers based on locally-held organisational data.
The trends associated with on-device and on-premises AI
Even MacOS is now supporting on-device artificial intelligence on the latest Macs with Apple silicon.
2024 has effectively become the year of general-purpose on-device AI processing with both the mobile-platform devices that run mobile operating systems and the regular computers that run desktop operating systems.
Some of the premium Android smartphones, tablets and smartwatches from the likes of Samsung and Google that are introduced in 2024 are being equipped with AI functionality. These implement Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile ARM64 processors and use this technology for voice-to-text, advanced search, machine translation, photo editing and similar functionality. Apple is introducing this kind of on-device AI to their latest iPhones and iPads powered with their latest silicon as part of Apple Intelligence, their branding of on-device AI. Here, this offers AI-driven inbox management, document and recording summarisation, image editing, AI-driven emojis and similar functions.
As well, during this year, Microsoft built in to Windows 11 on-device AI functionality which comes alive on computers that have neural-processing units. This is marketed as CoPilot+ and is being offered on laptop computers that use Qualcomm Snapdragon X (ARM64) silicon or, shortly, Intel Lunar Lake Core Ultra and AMD Strix Point (IA-64) silicon. These offer video transcription and captioning, image creation and editing, video editing, document summarisation amongst other things. This has been underscored by a deluge of CoPilot+ AI-capable laptops being launched or given their first outing at the Internationaler Funkaustellung 2024 in Berlin with some of the units equipped with Intel silicon and others with Qualcomm Snapdragon X silicon.
Apple is also offering a similar kind of artificial intelligence for the latest Macintosh computers with the latest Apple M-series silicon. This will offer the same kind of features as their iOS and iPadOS implementations but with a richer interface. For all the Apple operating systems, there is support for hybrid ChatGPT operation with a “private cloud” arrangement to protect users’ data.
QNAP and Synology are working on equipping newer NAS units and newer versions of the NAS operating systems for artificial intelligence with AI being seen as part of a NAS’s feature set. But this will primarily be about managing or indexing data held on these devices themselves but someone even prototyped a NAS-based local ChatGPT setup as a proof of concept about on-premises generative AI setups which would then be about secure AI operations.. There will be the idea of using business or enthusiast grade NAS units as part of edge-computing setups to permit pre-processing of data before submitting to cloud-based AI.
Conclusion
On-device and on-premises artificial intelligence including hybrid setups such as edge-based AI or private cloud AI is expected to be a key turning point for this technology. This will most likely be due to a call for secure private and bespoke data handling requirements coming about and to keep generative AI technology relevant for most users.
Through the late 1980s and the 1990s, there were a range of regular personal desktop computers that used various forms of processors that implemented RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) technology.
The most common of these were the Apple Mac computers that used Motorola PowerPC silicon and existed before Apple implemented Intel silicon with examples like the original iMac. As well, the Sony PS3, Microsoft XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii games consoles implemented PowerPC RISC silicon at the heart of these devices so you may have played with this technology without knowing it.
But there were some computers with niche appeal like the SGI Indigo or the Sun Microsystems SPARC-based workstations that used limited-appeal high-power RISC chipsets. Acorn even ran a range of computers pitched to the education sector in the form of the Archimedes and RISC PC that were the first to implement today’s ARM RISC technology.
These systems were more about maximum graphics and multimedia power or high-load workstation-class computing that was to be achieved in an efficient manner. But Intel and Microsoft had brought a very similar level of power to computers based on their traditional i86-based CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing) processors.
Through the 2000s and 2010s, Apple implemented Intel i64-based (64-bit i86 microarchitecture) silicon in their lineup of MacOS-based regular computers and adapted to this new microarchitecture. Now they have licensed ARM-64 (64-bit ARM RISC) microprocessor technology and used that to build their own M-Series system-on-chip processors.
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor chip – maturing ARM64 RISC computing for the Windows-based regular computer
Now Microsoft is developing their desktop operating system, application software and software-development tools to also work with ARM-64 RISC microarchitecture. They are also partnering with Qualcomm to work on a series of Snapdragon ARM64-based system-on-chip microprocessors for use in laptops that run Windows with this effort coming to maturity this year in the form of the Snapdragon X system-on-chip processor.
This is because ARM-based RISC computing is being used in portable and low-power computing setups like mobile-platform smartphones and tablets. It is also being implemented in set-top boxes, smart TVs, network-attached storage devices and similar devices where a low-profile or flexible design is being preferred. For portable devices, this will be about longer battery life such as many days on a charge or being equipped with smaller batteries. For statioary devices, it will be about compact or flexible power-efficient device designs.
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus CoPilot+ laptop with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite silicon
As well, Apple and Microsoft are moving towards ARM64 microarchitecture for their regular-computer hardware and software to slow down the decline in business and consumer interest in this client-side computer class.
For Microsoft, Windows 11 has made it possible to emulate a 64-bit Intel operating environment on ARM64 computers like those using the Qualcomm Snapdragon X system-on-chip. This would allow most of today’s software and games to run on these computers. As well, Qualcomm and Microsoft are driving the on-device AI abilities associated with Snapdragon X by marking these computers as “CoPilut+ computers”.
These computers will answer most mainstream computing tasks especially on highly-portable or “all-in-one” computers. But to see stronger appeal, there may be market pressure to have a wide range of core games or creative software developed for or ported to ARM64 platforms.
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X 2-in-1 laptop with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite silicon
Creative software that was written for or ported to Apple Macs using M-Series silicon could just as easily be developed for ARM-based Windows computers. This has also increased the validity of regular computers using ARM64-based technology amongst the creator / prosumer community. Similarly games studios that wrote for games consoles that have used PowerPC or ARM technology as well as i86/i64 technology desktop computers will also be able to adapt easily to this new reality.
At the moment, the regular-computer scene will still end up as a “horses for courses” environment with Intel/AMD-based silicon being for high-power computing tasks like core gaming or certified workstations, or where the highest level of hardware and software compatibility is desired. That is while the ARM64-based computers will hold their ground for an increasing amount of mainstream computing tasks.
But I would still consider the ARM64-based computers as being a viable alternative to i64-based Intel or AMD powered regular computers that run Windows or Linux as their operating systems.
Pro-Ject T2W Wi-Fi turntable – an example of a turntable with a digital output
The recent vinyl revival has been driven not just by the hipsters who saw the vinyl record as an ironic statement but also by people who grew up through most of the late 20th century where these records were the main music distribution format.
Some of these people even kept a music system that can play vinyl records along with a sizeable record collection, and kept putting these records on even when there was an expectation in the 90s and 2000s to move away from that format. In some cases, these people kept vinyl records that wouldn’t be reissued on any newer media. This is in addition to DJs who worked with vinyl records and, in some cases, used the turntable as a musical instrument.
As well, the turntable and a collection of classic-rock records by talent like the Beatles, Pink Floyd or Fleetwood Mac recently became an alternative to the motorcycle or sports car as a “mid-life crisis” symbol for men. This is because of these men were teenagers or young adults through the 1960s and 1970s where this kind of music was played on vinyl records using a reasonably-priced but good-sounding hi-fi system.
What are these turntables that have digital outputs
VinylPlay – an integrated-phono-stage turntable that raises the bar for this class of turntable
As part of the vinyl revival, nearly all turntable or record-player manufacturers are offering at least one turntable or record player with a digital output of some sort like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or USB or a digital recording subsystem.
Nearly all of this equipment has the customary “from-the-cartridge” analogue output that can be a raw phono-grade signal for use by amplifiers with a PHONO input, or an amplified line-level signal for equipment that only has a line-level input. This would be in addition to the digital sound path mentioned above and would permit, in the case of a Bluetooth turntable that you used with a Bluetooth speaker, you to upgrade towards a better hi-fi setup with an integrated amplifier and pair of speakers.
There are some record players that use digital inputs like Bluetooth or USB as an “external-equipment” programme source for their onboard amplifier which amplifies the sound for integrated or connected speakers. But the turntables are their to work with a separate amplifier or sound system.
Why do these turntables and record players exist
A few reasons these turntables and record players have appeared include people dabbling in vinyl for the first time and using Bluetooth headphones or speakers as their initial audio setup. Or your audio system uses am amplifier that omits a tape loop connection to connect a recording device to but you want to record your vinyl records to your computer for mobile use or to salvage them.
The audio signal path in these turntables
The signal path from the moving-magnet cartridge that follows your record’s grooves is sent via a preamplifier that brings the music signal to a stronger line-level signal, then to the analogue-digital conversion circuitry which converts the analogue signal to a digital signal for the digital use case. This is similar to a regular turntable that is connected to an amplifier that implements digital signal processing or “digital-to-the-speaker” amplification like some new Technics amplifiers do.
The digital use cases that come about for these turntables are:
Bluetooth audio source which works wirelessly with Bluetooth speakers or headphones
Wi-Fi or Ethernet home network connection to work with a network-based multiroom audio setup or DLNA-compliant audio setup
Digital recorder subsystem to record that LP to a USB memory stick or similar storage device
These will still play your records properly
All of these turntables are engineered in a similar way to most of the other well-bred turntables that exist out there. Typically this is because these turntables are part of a series of products offered by a manufacturer that share a common design and are offered as an “extra feature” model in the series. The moving-magnet pick-up cartridges used on these turntables are of the same expectation for something that would be on the end of a decent turntable’s tonearm.
As well, they still maintain that traditional record-playing experience with most offering a fully-manual operation approach. Or some units have some form of automatic operation such as for themselves to lift the tonearm off the record at the end of the side or to have you press a button or move a lever to have the tonearm move to the start of the record and commence playing then park itself at the end of the record. Of course, the tonearm on these turntables is equipped with a cueing lever to protect the stylus when you lift the arm on to the record.
Analogue purists will not like the idea of these digital-output turntables because they expect the audio signal to travel from the pickup cartridge to the speakers via amplification that is purely analogue in nature. This is the same group who will not like analogue-digital-analogue amplification approaches that Technics, JBL and a few other names have been dabbling in. It is although these turntables offer the analogue audio output whether as a line-level output or as a “phono-level” output for external phono preamplifiers or amplifiers with their own phono-stage circuitry. As well, some of these turntables have a switch to turn off the power to the digital-audio circuitry which will benefit those who want that pure analogue sound that isn’t tarnished by any digital circuitry.
Some extra compromises may appear with this digital-audio approach. This can be where the analogue-to-digital circuitry may be sub-par or Bluetooth applications may limit the codec to SBC which is not really fit for hi-fi. Units that implement an on-board USB recorder function can be limited by the inability to select high-grade lossless audio filetypes like WAV or FLAC for recording.
You may also find that it may be difficult to set up the digital functionality in some of these turntables. For example, pairing a set of Bluetooth headphones to a Bluetooth turntable may be difficult, or the recording procedure may be difficult for a unit that implements its own USB recorder.
My comments about these digital-output turntables
Personally I would see the purchase of a turntable with digital output as being something that suits your particular needs. This could range from something that can facilitate salvaging cherished or way-out-of-print records using your computer, to use with your network-based multiroom audio system or to use with Bluetooth headphones or speakers.
Here, the purchasing of these turntables is made easier because you can refer to the “baseline” model of the same series to see whether they are something you would like to play your records on. On the other hand, if you are satisfied with your turntable and amplifier, you may not need to buy any of these turntables that have digital outputs.
It is more so where your amplifier has a line-level output independent of the volume control like a “tape output” typically used for cassette decks or other recording devices. In this case, you could connect up a USB sound module, Bluetooth transmit adaptor, network multiroom audio “on-ramp” adaptor or similar device to the amplifier to suit your digital audio needs. Some of you who own a record player or vinyl-capable three-piece music system may find that your equipment may have one of these line-level outputs.
These turntables don’t diminish the analogue character of vinyl records but are able to extend them to particular use cases such as to provide elementary private listening through Bluetooth headsets or salvaging them. Here, it is about choosing the right turntable for your needs but making sure you are getting a good-quality unit that you can trust with your vinyl records,
The competitive telecommunications and Internet market in France has led towards some exciting equipment being offered has led to the local telecommunications providers offering customer premises equipment way above the average for this class of equipment.
One firm I have given space to a lot on this site is Iliad who run their “Free” Internet service in France as something that raised the bar for value there. They ended up offering a highly capable piece of equipment in the form of the Freebox Révolution with a highly-capable router / NAS unit / DECT cordless-telephone base station in one Phillippe-Starck-designed box and a “décodeur” set-top box with Blu-Ray player in another similarly-designed box. It even ended up with features like “box-to-box” or “client-to-box” VPN support, software-defined Wi-Fi 5 support and a gyroscopic remote control and both devices benefited from continual firmware upgrades that offered new functionality.
Previously, the Freebox Révolution was defined as the cutting edge for this class of hardware
Now Iliad have taken things further with the Freebox Ultra which is usurping the role of the Freebox Révolution. This, like the Freebox Révolution uses fibre optic as the WAN connection but can work at 10 Gigabit speed, allowing for a competitive 10G Internet service courtesy of Free.
There is an extraordinary local network offering with a Wi-Fi 7 4-band access point with two streams for all of the bands. This media network is protected using the latest WPA3 security specification and there is the ability to steer client devices to the best band to work with. As for the wired network, this Freebox is about multi-gigabit Ethernet all the way with a 10 Gigabit SFP connection and four 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet sockets as a switch.
The CPU in this Freebox Ultra is an ARM Cortex A73 RISC CPU, something that wouldn’t look out of place in smartphones, tablets or the connected car. Here it is about using less power to handle a lot of data and offer a rich user interface. A user can install a NVM3 2280 SSD stick in to this router to have this work as a NAS the Freebox way with support for UPnP AV / DLNA, Apple Time Machine and other common standards. The other approach for connecting storage to this device is to use a USB-C socket with 60W PowerDelivery power for a USB hard disk or SSD of some sort.
Like the recent Freebox setups since the Révolution, this unit works on the Freebox OS which has a user interface that wouldn’t look out of place on a recent consumer or small-business network-attached storage device or a desktop operating system’s GUI. Here, I wouldn’t put it past Free to add more functionality with a Freebox OS firmware update, even have it work with newer Wi-Fi or other network standards.
This device even comes with an extender known as the Freebox Répéteur 7 which works on Wi-Fi 7 to cover larger French homes like the “mas en Provence” so you can have continual Wi-Fi coverage through them. There is even an Ethernet connection so you could connect a wired Ethernet device to the extender or, perhaps, run a wired backhaul to the Ereebox 7.
Due to this connectivity and these capabilities, it bas been realised that the Freebox Ultra is about achieving a future-proof home network for your French home. This device is typically offered for EUR€49.99 per month with a fibre-optic broadband service that offers Internet, TV and fixed-line telephony of the kind expected in a French competitive telecommunications market.
Once you have the French telecommunications providers and AVM continually offering cutting-edge consumer-premises network equipment, it wouldn’t take long for these firms to compete with Silicon Valley and become an “Airbus” or “Arianespace” equivalent.
The Alienware M16 R2 gaming laptop that presents itself as a “Gentleman’s Express”, offering a classy boardroom-friendly look but being a high-performance gaming machine
There is still an interest in combining performance and everyday functionality in to regular laptop computers as these computers are appealing to more user classes than gamers or full-on professionals who use advanced software.
Previously Dell have been taking the “sports sedan” approach to creating laptops that appeal to workday use but also appeal to gaming or similar high-performance computing use cases. The “sports sedan” approach is where a standard family car design is used as the basis for a high-performance variant of that car, typically with the difference between the regular car model and the performance variant being a powertrain that has a lot more grunt.
.. just like the Jensen Interceptor “gentleman’s express” sports coupe
But Dell have also headed down another path similar to some British and European-built cars like the Jaguar XJ S or the Jensen Interceptor. Here, a significant number of British and European vehicle builders engineered these cars to look subtle but yield a fair bit of performance and some of these cars ended up being described as “gentleman’s express” cars – conveying a mixture of youthful sportiness on the road and a classy look that doesn’t look out of place at that 5-star restaurant or that corporate office.
This is demonstrated by the Alienware M16 R2 gaming laptop which has the look and performance of other Alienware gaming laptops. But this comes across with muted colouring and has the option to turn off the RGB lighting to convey that demure look for the office. This also scales down the performance requirement for the laptop so it can work with most office workloads but not needing to spin up fans to permit high performance so you can convey that sense of professionalism.
But this doesn’t necessarily allow you to save on battery runtime due to a “performance first” design. This would then mean that you have to keep the charger with you all the time. The reviewer even described it as though computer manufacturers are moving away from gaudy looks as a sign of the times.
This computer still has an Intel Cor Ultra 7 155H CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics with 8Gh display memory, 16Gb RAM, a 16”2K (2560×1600) screen with a refresh rate of 240Hz. Storage comes out at 1 Terabyte SSD. But the review sample in that article costed USD$1849. There is the option to use an external graphics module thanks to a Thunderbolt 4 port, which means that you could use a fit-for-purpose graphics card in a “card-cage” external graphics module if you are thinking of different tasks like CAD or engineering.
Like a lot of gaming laptops, this could earn its keep with students who use CAD, engineering, statistics or similar software as part of their studies but are not ready to buy a certified workstation for this software until they are sure that what they are studying for is their vocation. Also this computer could become a viable creator / multimedia / prosumer option for the creative types who value the Windows platform.
The review is also conveying the computer as being suitable for “work+personal” computing setups like BYOD or people who run their own businesses, where the goal is to have one machine for work or studay and play.
This year (2024) is being seen as a year for Wi-Fi 7 to gain legitimacy as a Wi-Fi network technology for the home and small-business network space. It is because the Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) standard was set in stone on January 8 2024.
This will be about leading wireless networks towards multiple-gigabit networking, something that will be facilitated by Gigabit fibre Internet-service networks that can be easily upgraded to this direction. There is expected to be reduced latency which will benefit online-multiplayer video games, videoconferencing and similar time-sensitive activity. There will also be time-sensitive network support at the media level that will benefit multichannel sound, multi-camera video production, robotics and the like.
But these networks still work on a “best case” approach but in a way that permits Wi-Fi 7 networks to support equipment that works to prior standards.
What is now happening is that more telcos and ISPs are being offered home-network routers that support Wi-Fi 7 and offer these kind of advantages. This is something to be expected of in a competitive market like France where Free is offering the Freebox Ultra (Product Page – French language / Langue française) which is the first “n-box” router to work Wi-Fi 7. along with 4 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports.
ZTE’s Wi-Fi 7 router lineup
ZTE is coming forth with a range if Wi-Fi 7 routers and access points – a range of 10 models covering every possible configuration with some routers supporting FTTP setups and DSL-copper setups as well as broadband Internet, Then Vantiva demonstrated their EasyMesh-compatible Wi-Fi 7 extenders alongside their 5G fixed-wireless modem routers at Mobile World Congress 2024. Here, most of this equipment will be made available to telcos and ISPs who are offering Gigabit Fibre Internet services. As well, Netgear and TP-Link are offering a range of Wi-Fi 7 compatible routers, distributed Wi-Fi systems and access points in their home-network product ranges, typically for high-performance users.
There is still a trickle of client-side equipment with Samsung S24 Series smartphones and the Google Pixel 8 Pro smartphone being the first recognised smartphone model to support this technology. But this year, Wi-Fi 7 will become part of product refreshes for smartphones, tablets and laptops at the premium end of the market.
The fact that network equipment manufacturers are offering Wi-Fi 7 routers ‘under contract” to telcos and ISPs for sale or lease to their end-users and that the next generation of smartphones is to have Wi-Fi 7 shows industry confidence in that standard. It would still be a valid upgrade for networks running Wi-Fi 5 or prior-technology equipment especially if the equipment is significantly old. Or as the equipment comes in to affordable mid-range territory, it could be seen as a long-term upgrade for your Wi-Fi network.
As well, it could encourage the sale of multi-Gigabit Ethernet switches due to a need to have at least 2.5 Gigabit as a wired backhaul option for distributed or many-access-point Wi-Fi 7 networks with 2.5 Gigabit unmanaged basic 5-port switches coming in to very affordable territory.
Through this Website, I often talk of a “small logical network” when describing the kind of networks that connected devices can use when there is the desire to work with each other.
What is a “Small logical network”
This is a network typical of one set up in your home or small business as a primary network primarily by people who live in your home or work in your business. Here, the network is intended to be used by people who effectively know each other.
Basic DLNA Media Network – an example of what the small logical network is about
It can use Wi-Fi wireless technology; Ethernet new-wire technology; or a “wired no-new-wires” technology like HomePlug / G.Hn HomeGrid powerline, or MoCA / G.Hn HomeGrid TV coaxial cable; or a combination of these physical-connection technologies. But this network is connected to the same router / Internet-gateway device and established as one network.
The router device will use DHCP to allocate the IP addresses to each device from a particular pool of addresses so that they are discoverable across this network. It is also configured without any isolation across this network so that the users’ devices can discover each other across the network. This is important for file transfer across the network, printing (including driver-free printing) to network-connected printers, and AV / multimedia protocols and setups like network-based multiroom setups, AirPlay, Chromecast or UPnP AV / DLNA, with this concept being highlighted in the diagram opposite.
Guest Network Functionality
An increasing number of routers are supporting the creation of “guest networks” which are another logical network that may be used for tenants or guests. These networks have a different set of IP addresses and can’t discover the devices associated with the main network, although they can gain access to the Internet service.
These can either be set up to be another small logical network with device discovery within that network or as a public-access Wi-Fi network of the kind outlined below that doesn’t support device discovery across that network.
Public-access Wi-Fi
A properly configured public-access or community network is set up for device isolation so that the devices which use that network cannot discover each other but can discover the Internet connection. This is because such networks are used by people who don’t really know each other. Such networks wouldn’t fit in to that term of a “small logical network” that I use on this site because of the emphasis on device-to-device discoverability.
Newer hospitality networks
But tech vendors courting the hospitality and allied trades are working on network setups where each room or apartment of the facility has its own logical network. This is provided by a Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and password that is peculiar to the room or apartment and will last for the duration of your tenure. You will either have a docket with that Wi-Fi network name and password when you rent the room or even scan a EasyConnect QR code to enrol your device.
Then, when you enrol each of your devices to that network, they see each other as though they are a member of a home network. Some of these “solutions” vendors are even integrating devices like connected entertainment endpoints (Chromecasts, Apple TVs, smart TVs, Internet radios, etc) that work with these networks and are discoverable using the usual suspects (AirPlay, UPnP AV / DLNA, Chromecast, Spotify Connect, etc).
But this is distinct from a simple property-wide network like the headline Wi-Fi network that is pitched for use by guests that would be properly set up to isolate each device that uses the network. It is also distinct from the premise’s back-of-house network that is used for the hotel’s business IT needs.
Enterprise networks
Larger enterprise networks are typically engineered in a more intricate manner so that data flows within particular segments of that large organisation. This will typically be about the use of multiple virtual networks or multiple logical networks and even authentication routines not associated with the typical small network such as certificates.
Dependent on the use case, each logical network within an enterprise setup would be set up so that devices logged in to that network can find each other or they can be set up with the abovementioned device isolation.
Similarly, they will implement the Enterprise variations of the Wi-Fi WPA2/3 security protocols that use advanced sign-in requirements like usernames and passwords or device-local certificates. Most devices typically used on a home network wouldn’t support networks that use these kind of advanced security protocols.
Mobile networks
Mobile wireless network for two or more mobile devices and mobile client devices – uses a router-class device like a “Mi-Fi” router
A small logical network can be created in a mobile environment through the use of a travel router or MiFi-type mobile broadband modem router. Some mobile NAS units also provide this kind of facility. Even a regular computer running recent versions of MacOS or Windows can create its own small logical network while connecting to a public-access Wi-Fi network thanks to “mobile hotspot” or “Internet Sharing” functionality.
The idea behind the small logical network is a network, independent of connection media, that exists behind a single router device and allows each device on that network to discover and connect to each other.
Manage Cookie Consent
We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. We do this to improve browsing experience and to show (non-) personalized ads. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
![Map of Europe By User:mjchael by using preliminary work of maix¿? [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://homenetworking01.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/512px-Blank_map_europe_coloured.svg_.png)
