High-Resolution Car Audio: an Uphill Climb
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Vol. 27, No. 10 u hansenreport.com u December 2014/January 2015 Google and Apple No High-Resolution Car Audio: Threat to Infotainment An Uphill Climb Suppliers High-resolution audio, defined as audio While most of the more than two mil- quality that’s better than CDs, has been in lion tracks available for download at Pono the news a lot lately. Last summer, Sony are CD quality (44.1 kHz/16-bit), which is As carmakers announce their rollouts of introduced the Sony Walkman ZX1 high- the best that some record companies are Apple CarPlay and Android Auto—software resolution music player, which you can buy able to provide, PonoPlayers are capable of that makes the vehicle’s display, switches on Amazon today for $600, and showed playing any quality level up to 192 kHz/24- and audio system available to applications the updated NW-ZX2 at CES 2015. But a bit (Blu-ray). Pono strives to provide the running on iPhones and Android-based much bigger splash has been made by sing- best available format. From Pono World smartphones—numerous industry analysts er-songwriter Neil Young and his Pono- Times (www.ponoworldtimes.com): “We have worried that it will give Apple and Music team, who took all of ten hours last believe in giving ALL the music to you, just Google a foothold in the car. “Google and March to reach their $800,000 fundraising as it was made, or, in the case of original Apple will make the car an accessory to the goal on the equity crowdfunding site Kick- masters, as close as digital technology can phone,” they say. Apple and Android starter. By the end of December 2014, come to it by copying it at the highest reso- account for 96% of the operating systems more than $6 million had been raised. lution.” used in smartphones globally. PonoMusic, which has an online music The PonoPlayer includes two 1/8-inch Over the last few years a number of store, has already begun shipping the Pono- (3.5 mm) audio output jacks. Audio files investors with positions in infotainment Player, its $399 prism-shaped, high-resolu- can be loaded onto the PonoPlayer using stocks have asked for my opinion about the tion, portable music player. the PonoMusic Center desktop applica- likelihood that Apple and Google will The case for high-resolution audio in tion, soon to be released on Windows and make a serious incursion into the infotain- the car is thin. These days, many of us MacOS. The PonoPlayer’s audio files can ment market. My answer is they won’t. listen to music that has been compressed, be transferred to a tablet via USB. Here’s why: which makes the audio files much smaller u Google and Apple have no interest Turn to Audio, page 2 and far less expensive to stream or down- in competing directly with infotainment load. CDs are clumsy to use in vehicles and system integrators or head-unit suppliers. carmakers are moving away from installing Max Playback Bit Rates by Format With more than 20 suppliers, including CD players. Harman, Panasonic, Pioneer, Denso, Aisin High-resolution or high-definition audio are Pandora, which streams music at 64 Seiki, Alpine, Bosch, Continental, Magneti terms that describe audio files that have kbps, provides just 5% of the data supplied Marelli, Hyundai Mobis, Clarion, Mitsubi- more sonic data than CDs, meaning they by a CD track. Given the losses due to shi Electric and Fujitsu Ten already serving have sampling rates that are greater than compression, low fidelity has become the the global OEM market, competition is 44.1 kHz and bit depths greater than 16. norm. If people are listening mostly to In- intense. As a result profits are thin—tiny ternet radio in their cars, they have little compared with Google’s 24% net margin Audio Formats Bit Rates need for expensive multi-speaker systems on $56 billion in revenue and Apple’s 21% SiriusXM 32 kbps and digital-to-analog converters. High-end net on $183 billion in revenue. Pandora 64 kbps audio systems will be wasted, given the u The incumbent infotainment suppli- MP3 128 to 256, typically poor quality of audio sources. Garbage in, ers know cars and have long histories of iTunes 256 kbps garbage out. developing systems for carmakers. Their CD (44.1 kHz/16-bit) 1,411 kbps (700 to Writing for Digital Trends business is automotive electronics. Google’s 1,000 kbps average) (www.digitaltrends.com) in March 2014, main business is advertising; Apple’s is con- High Resolution Caleb Denison explained what Neil Young 96 kHz/24-bit* 4,608 kbps sumer electronics. When it comes to devel- and PonoMusic are up to: “In a nutshell, 192 kHz/24-bit** 9,612 kbps oping infotainment systems, often the most Neil Young aims to turn digital music sophisticated system on the vehicle, car- around by getting music lovers and listen- *Harman demonstrated high-definition makers will not turn to Google or Apple. ers closer to the quality of music as it was audio streaming to cars over Wi-Fi using u Although carmakers are exceedingly created by the artist. He points out that this format at the 2015 CES. wary of Apple and Google, they are install- even the CD is a dumbed-down version of **The PonoPlayer can play any ing links from Apple and Android devices the original master recordings, devoid of level from CD quality up to this bit rate. to their vehicles’ infotainment systems. But their dynamics and detail.” Turn to No Threat, page 8 The Hansen Report on Automotive Electronics, www.hansenreport.com Page 1, Dec. 2014/Jan. 2015 The Electronics Behind Tata Motors’ New Zest The average transaction price of a new The partitioning for each of the Zest’s the highest electronics content of all the vehicle in the United States was approxi- six trim levels was done at an early stage in domains. According to Tata, the Zest’s mately $31,000 in 2014. This past August, the development. Multiple variants of each infotainment system offers the best value Tata Motors introduced a new line of B+ ECU were created to ensure that the ECUs compared with systems offered by the other segment compact sedans in India that developed for the lower trim level vehicles carmakers serving the B+ segment of the range in price from $7,603 to $11,563. We were not burdened with the extra cost Indian car market. contacted Tata Motors to see what is required by the ECUs applied to the higher The Zest was developed at Tata Motors’ unique about the electronics aboard the trim levels. The features, and therefore the facility in Pune, India. In January 2015, Zest that can support such low prices. electronics content, are fixed for each trim Tata will introduce a second all-new model, The Zest’s completely new electronics level. There are no factory-installed the Bolt hatchback, which shares the same architecture was the key innovation that options. platform as the Zest. u allows the remarkably low retail price. The Software content ranges from 172 kilo- architecture was conceived with cost and bytes for the lowest cost model up to 256 11 ECUs in Top Zest Trim Level flexibility as the foremost objectives. After megabytes for the highest priced model. Powertrain ECUs (2) much analysis, Tata determined that a max- The top trim level model has 947 wiring Engine management system imum of 11 ECUs, all networked over a circuits. Automated manual transmission single high-speed CAN bus, was the opti- The infotainment system developed for Chassis ECUs (2) mal solution. Tata by Harman International provides ABS “Each ECU, sensor and actuator was connectivity via a brought-in device. Music Electric power assisted steering analyzed to see which could be carried over and temperature are controlled by a 5-inch Comfort and Convenience ECUs (2) from existing Tata Motors or supplier touch-screen display. The systems can also Instrument cluster libraries and which needed to be custom handle voice commands and read SMS text Fully automatic temperature control designed,” noted Tata Motors in a written messages. The infotainment domain has Infotainment ECU (1) response to our questions. “After careful Head unit and active antenna evaluation, a mixed approach gave the best Tata Zest Major Suppliers Body and Security ECUs (3) result. It was decided that the power, chas- Body control module sis and safety ECUs could be carried for- Behr-Hella Magneti Marelli Immobilizer Bosch Park distance control ward. The comfort and convenience, body, Visteon Harman ZF Lenksysteme Safety ECU (1) security and infotainment ECUs would be Hella Airbags newly designed.” Audio… Continued from page 1 © 2015 Paul Hansen Associates, 150 Pono, Ford and Harman High-Resolution Audio Faces Challenges Pinehurst Road, Portsmouth, NH 03801 During an appearance on CNBC in The biggest challenge to high-resolution USA. Telephone: 603-431-5859; fax: 603- October, Neil Young leaked the news that audio is the widely held belief among ex- 431-5791; email: [email protected]. All rights reserved. PonoMusic has been working with Har- perts—supported by blind tests—that most Materials may not be reproduced in man to build Pono into the new 2016 Lin- people can’t hear the difference between any form without written permission. coln Continental. Neither Ford nor high resolution audio files and high bit-rate The Hansen Report on Automotive Harman would confirm Mr. Young’s com- compressed files. Almost no one will notice Electronics is published ten times a year at ment. A top electrical engineer at Ford has an improvement over CD quality.