Nordic Semiconductor's low-power Bluetooth chipsets are gaining recognition for their reliable performance in Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast Broadcast Audio TV streamers that deliver high-quality streaming audio.

Nordic today announced that its dual-core nRF5340 System-on-Chip (SoC) and nRF21540 RF Front-End Module (FEM) are being used in Swiss embedded electronics design company Arendi’s Oracast TV streamer, delivering improved audio quality along with low-power, long-range, and reliable wireless connectivity.

Arendy recently launched its Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast Broadcast Audio TV Streamer, which provides high-quality streaming audio from your TV, stereo, PC or similar device to your Bluetooth® LE or AuracastTM enabled headphones, speakers and hearing aids.

“Currently, TV streamers use proprietary RF links to account for the limited energy of hearing aids,” says Thomas Rupp, CTO of Arendy. “Now with the launch of Arendy’s Oracast TV streamer, we have a Bluetooth LE low energy solution that is not limited to manufacturers,” he said.

LE Audio, the next-generation Bluetooth audio, supports TWS (True Wireless Stereo) and enables Bluetooth LE-based audio streaming.

Additionally, it can significantly reduce power consumption compared to Classic Bluetooth, allowing for longer battery life or supporting the same runtime using a smaller battery.

Oracast allows you to broadcast audio streams to unlimited devices through the same audio source, such as Arendy's Oracast TV Streamer.

For example, a hearing aid wearer can hear the audio stream with exceptional clarity, while friends and family can also listen at their own choice of volume, either directly from the audio source or through their own Oracast-compatible hearing aids, headphones, or earbuds.

Nordic’s nRF5340 SoC features powerful dual Arm® Cortex®-M33 processors: a high-performance application processor with DSP and floating point support, with 1MB of Flash and 512KB of RAM, and a fully programmable, ultra-low-power network processor with 256KB of Flash and 64KB of RAM. Additionally, the dedicated application processor provides sufficient computing resources to run the audio codec of Arendi's Oracast TV streamer, enabling clear sound quality and stable transmission.

Additionally, Arendy’s TV streamer uses Nordic’s nRF21540 FEM to achieve higher transmit power (+20dBm instead of +3dBm for the nRF5340 SoC), enabling longer range between the TV and receiver, allowing stable transmission even when users, such as hearing aid wearers, turn their heads away from the audio source.

“We have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Nordic and their early support for LE Audio has made it easier to adopt Nordic solutions,” says Thomas Rupp of Arendy. “In particular, the nRF5340 SoC with its dual-core performance required for the audio codec and the nRF21540 RF FEM with its improved transmit power were the optimal choices for Arendy’s TV streamer.”

“Nordic’s nRF Connect SDK (software development kit) which includes an LE Audio-enabled software stack that is critical to the development process was another key reason for choosing Nordic,” he added.