Examining the Bluetooth technology roadmap: Key upcoming features and emerging use case trends
hello everyone my name is Damon Barnes I'm the director of technical marketing for the Bluetooth special interest group um today I'm going to give you a little bit of an overview of some re recent feature enhancements for Bluetooth technology um talk a little bit about some upcoming projects or in process projects that are underway and then also give you the latest on the roll out of orac cast broadcast audio so with that said let's jump right into it okay first let's start off with a little bit about the Bluetooth special interest group who we are and what we do so um the Bluetooth Sig um we oversee of course Bluetooth technology and all Associated trademarks we're a non-for-profit member-driven organization it's about 27 years old um established in 1998 the Sig we're a little bit different than other Wireless standards organizations in that we're kind of like this One-Stop shop for all things Bluetooth technology we have four four main um organizations within Sig we have a standards development organization a qualification group a p um we also have a group that functions as the patent and trademark license administrator and we also function as the industry trade Association for Bluetooth technology so our standards development organization they have on average 50 plus um specification development projects underway at any given time and then this qualification group last last year alone they qualified 70,000 plus Bluetooth products and then the when we operate when I talk about the patent and trade mark license administrator um this allow this is where we basically license or provide a cross license to the 40,000 plus Bluetooth a member organizations and Industry Trade Organization we're responsible that's where my group um resides we're responsible for the education and promotion of the 5 billion plus Bluetooth products to ship each year here so that's kind of who we are as the Sig all right so um this slide just real quick not too much about it but we um Bluetooth technology is the most widely deployed um wireless standard when we compare that against Wi-Fi and cellular and if you take a quick look at the slide I you know we you know have you know nearly five billion devices that are shipped each year as I mentioned and that growth is going to you know only increase over the next 5 years this data is the projections at least provide or all the data actually is provided by ABI research and as you see Bluetooth technolog is going you know got a nice little growth Trend um and then to take just a little bit closer look at that this slide right here focuses in just on Bluetooth technology itself if you take a look at the chart um in 2029 we're projected to have 7.7 billion Bluetooth devices Shi um that equates if you calculate tabulate excuse me from um say 2025 to 2029 over those 5 years years a 9% compound annual growth rate which is a really strong growth forecast and we believe at the Sig that this is going to materialize thanks to the ongoing Innovation and hard work by the Bluetooth member community so with that said now let's take a look at some of the feature enhancements and use cases that are going to drive this growth okay so this chart right here um um displays the recent major enhancements to Bluetooth technology SA over the last 10 years um if we dial all the way back to 2016 that's when we increase the throughput of Bluetooth technology to 2 megabits per second with the 2mf and then we also added a coded fi to extend range about 4X from that time period in uh 2017 middle of the year that's when we standardized Mesh networking over Bluetooth technology um Bluetooth Mesh networking is enables large scale device-to-device Communications of course and Wireless lighting control or network lighting control this is a use case area in the commercial space that's seen really strong adoption of the Bluetooth mesh um feature set um moving forward in 2020 that's when we started the roll out of La audio La AIO are think of it as the Next Generation wireless audio platform um Ellie audio also enables orac cast of course which I'll talk more about here shortly um moving on from 2023 that's when we released the periodic advertising with responses feature periodic advertising with responses um enables standardizes these really low power large scale device networks such as those you see pictured here for electronic shelf labels periodic advertising with responses enables these massive Hub deployments the retail space is taking you know advantage of this um feature right now um Walmart in the US um is running a trial where they're deploying Bluetooth based ES at hundreds of Lo locations as of um last year and we expect Bluetooth ESL adoption to only increase over time and then you know fast forward to today um It's Beginning of q1 2025 and you know last year we released Bluetooth Channel sounding at the end of the year we think Bluetooth Channel sounding is going to have a really big impact on a number of Bluetooth use cases and the second session today we're going to be solely focused on Bluetooth Channel sounding so I would encourage you after this session completes this morning to come back and join us for a deep dive on Bluetooth Channel sounding so those are the major feature enhancements that have been released that are going to drive some of the growth that I mentioned now let's turn to some of the features that are going to um add growth that these are projects that are underway currently all right so this is a quick overview of the four projects that I'm going to give you a quick update on um releasing this year it's going to be a based release is the ultr low latency hid project there's multiple enhancements I'll share with you here on that one and then High data throughput that's targeting release in 2026 High data throughput is going to add new F increase data rates and then we have a whole host of La audio enhancements um that are underway those will start coming through in 2026 and then in 2027 we're going to be hoping to enable Bluetooth La operation and higher frequency bands okay so ultr low latency hid so hid devices as you may know or and if you don't um human interface devices think of these as keyboards mice controllers for gaming this feature is working to bring down the latency of bluetooth-based H devices by adding support for polling rates up to 1,000 Hertz or 1 khz this is going to bring latency down to about the 1 millisecond range by doing this we're going to make Bluetooth um hit devices nearly as respons responsive as proprietary Wireless type devices and closer to the same experience that you might get with a USB wired H device and so um Gaming's going to be the initial use case that really takes advantage of these feature enhancements and then you know also in addition you'll look at being able to improve the user experience kind of like you see pictured over here for augmented virtual and mixed reality type um use cases so that's the ultra low latency H project all right and then High data throughput this is um a project where we're working to increase the max data rate of Bluetooth technology to 8 megabits per second that's the target um by doing this um adding increased throughput we're going to you know drastically enhance the performance of a number of different use cases out of the gate um when HDT is first released um we're going to see probably La audio take advantage of some of these um performance enhancements initially um some of the projects that will take advantage of the HTT excuse me of the HTT feature are high res we're looking to standardize high resolution and lossless audio over Bluetooth technology standardizing spatial audio and then bluetooth-based wireless surround sound um additionally of course with faster data rates you're going to get faster data transfer faster synchronization say from your wearable device or something like that um there's also potentially benefits for lower power consumption when you get on and off faster for your wireless communication and then better Wireless coexistence as well say with Wi-Fi when we potentially get airtime gains by getting on and off faster as well so those are some of the benefits of the HTT feature set all right and I've touched on some of these when it comes to La audio like I said there's a whole host of enhancement projects that are underway I mentioned high res and lossless audio spatial Audio surround sound these are all separate projects where we're working to standardize Bluetooth tooth based audio um for these use cases and then additionally in the middle you see one listed as sound exposure this is where we're looking to standardize the reporting of sound pressure data from bluetooth-based headphones um this you know allows users to better monitor their sound exposure Ure that we're not do you know doing damage to our hearing with if the volume's too loud and things of that nature and then orac cast there's several orac cast enhancements underway as well um two of the ones that are I think worth mentioning we're looking to standardize deployment of multiple transmitters to add capacity and extend coverage thinking about like public large public venue settings where you might have multiple transmitters and so those are just a few of the enhancements that are underway for L audio to um improve the performance there and then lastly but certainly not least we have the Bluetooth leie and higher bands project this is where we're looking to extend Bluetooth La operation into higher midband spectr we're targeting five and 6 GHz bands here unlicensed of course um the way we frame this project is this project is being undertaken to essentially uh ensure the next 25 years of performance enhancements for Bluetooth technology um of course with the project you're going to in higher operating in higher bands like you've seen potentially from WiFi you're going to see faster data rates we're also going to be able to bring latency down even further due to the The increased Channel bandwidth and then for location type use cases we'll get better positioning accuracy since we have the wider bands to work in kind of think like WB and then of course the developers of the um call it the higher bands feature set are um making making sure that they can do whatever they can to make sure to basically apply Lessons Learned From operating adjacent to Wi-Fi and ensure that there's better coexistence with other licensed Wireless standards in the bands okay now let's turn our Focus to the use cases these are the major use case areas that we see Bluetooth technology um basically um enabling that will enable the growth that I mentioned earlier over the next 5 years so digital key access control type use cases find my I mentioned this massive ecosystem or massim massive deployment base of Bluetooth devices that we have billions and billions of devices think about if all all or most of these Bluetooth devices are enabled as part of a large fine my network you know it could be very powerful I talked a little bit about electronic shelf labels Wireless lighting control ambient iot this is a newer use case area um think of this as battery list Bluetooth devices primarily deployed for supply chain optimization supply chain coordination um small little battery list battery listed devices all over to improve Supply Chain management now um let's turn our attention to orac cast um but before I jump into orac cast let me give you just a little bit of background so Bluetooth has been basically a leading innovator in wireless audio for the last 20 plus years but a few years ago um member companies they started looking at and planning for like what's next in wireless audio and a group of members um at the center of the initiative were the hearing Aid manufacturers and organizations from the hearing aid industry and so what they did is they approached the Sig and spearheaded a project um that's now resulting in Ellie audio and so Ellie audio is think of it as our next Generation audio platform so now Bluetooth technology has classic audio the audio that most of your devices headsets your buds use today um for streaming audio and for voice but La audio is the new platform ell both platforms will exist um for many years however most of the Innovation is going to be incurring on the LA audio side and when it comes to the benefits of ell audio we break it down into three buckets really so um you're of course over time you're going to get higher quality audio as I mentioned some of the feature projects that are underway you're going to get better performance and lower power consumption because um it's audio based on the L audio or excuse me Bluetooth La architecture and then you're going to have new standardization I mentioned the hearing AIDS um so now there are standardized over-the-counter bluetooth-based hearing aids um which will over time see increased performance when compared to um traditional hearing aids and then you're going to have this Global interoperability thanks to this um uh the global Bluetooth ecosystem and then lastly but certainly not not least the focus of the next few slides is going to be orac cast or cast is based on broadcast audio so a transmitter one-way communication to any to an limited number of devices that tap into the um system and we talk about oric cast being this next Generation assisted listening system or Sy ALS technology and orac cast enables these immersive audio experience experiences that I'll explain a little bit more in a subsequent slide so now let's look at how kind of how oric cast works at a really high level all right so with oric cast I started to mention it but a Bluetooth device or transmitter can now broadcast one way to an unlimited number of inrange devices so transmitter devices can think of those as TVs laptops tablets or a PA systems they're going to be broadcasting to directly to the receiver devices which might be earbuds headphones um could be hearing aids cckar implants um you name it any device that could stream audio and then you have your assistant devices which smartphones could be a smartwatch could even be a hearing aid remote these are the devices that you're going to basically uses your interface to identify and tap into an orac cast broadcast and so that's how it works at a really high level um the experiences that I mentioned we kind of throw into three um main buckets so share your audio unmute your world and hear your best when we talk about share your audio we're talking about sharing um an audio broadcast with someone like a a friend or colleague and then unmute your world as taking these TVs that might be in bar settings hotel lobby or even in in an airport that you know you would normally just be able to see visually but with orac cast if the TV were broadcasting the content or broadcasting the audio content you could then have a more complete watching experience by you know hearing say the football game in addition to just watching it and then here your best um the great example here is like at an airport um you're in an airport you here you have gate announcements gate change announcements um if you when you entered the airport you had into the PA system for the airport if it supported or cast you could then get these um gate announcements and change announcements directly to your earbuds or hearing device that you might be using so those are the ex the M the three big experiences for orac cast that we talk about and then like locations I've kind of mentioned a few airports bars hotels theaters lecture halls and then conference rooms Conference Centers like this setting right here you know one example here that I like to use is um you're listening to me talk here today but maybe you're more comfortable hearing or listening in another language like German or maybe Mandarin if this venue supported Ora cast you could simoc cast um my presentation in an alternative language and then you could listen to it that way directly on your earbuds if you so chose and then day in the life this is a just a little example slide that we have for a travel experience to a conference so I'll use myself as the example here so I go to the airport right I tap in via my smartphone to the airport PA system to be able to hear gate announcements um once I'm there I then go to you know sit down in a in a waiting area or restaurant bar and you know I could you know listen into the football game to while I'm waiting for um time be to be timed to board maybe I hear an announcement while I'm watching the game that you know my Gates changed so I walk to a different area that I planned I go to sit down you know in the waiting area I see a colleague um that I know through the industry and I show maybe a latest video that we have on Bluetooth Channel sounding and you know how it's performing so well once you get on the airplane yourself you tap into the inflight Entertainment System inflight um PA system then you not only can take in your audio through the you know the seatback but then also these pilot announcements announcements from um staff on the plane you know sometimes those aren't as loud as we would like but if you're getting that announcement directly to your earbuds you're going to get a better experience and understand exactly where your Gates going to be when you land and things of that nature then lastly I mentioned it kind of already but and presentation settings in a conference center simal cast multicast um uh broadcast in alternative languages as well so that's a kind of our day in the life uh overview so now let's turn to like where we are with orac cast enabled products and then deployments so as far as has in products that have qualified and support the um or broadcast audio feature set um we feel like we have pretty broad support um in the major um product categories so on the what we call the platform side we have support from Microsoft Android and then Intel as well and then on the smartphone side Samsung Sony and xiaomi are all supporting or cast broadcast audio on the transmitter side we have qualified products from ampetronic high sense Samsung and ReSound part of GN and then receivers there's almost too many to name but JBL senheiser Jabra Cocker Phillips those are several you know big names that support the or cast um feature set and are qualified and then on the right hand side of the slide you see some excerts from um the bluetooth.com web page for aast this is basically our landing page for official qualified orac cast products um this page launched in October and at the time we had 35 products I checked a couple weeks ago and we now have 100 plus um qualified end products that are on the market available for purchase and so that's really great progress and really good solid momentum so now that leads to the next question what about you know deployments where can you use or cast in public settings today obviously you can use it you know for personal use cases is if now if you have products from from this list that kind of rattled off here but we're now tracking these iconic Flagship public location deployments that are you know underway or inactive um there's four that are deployed today so the Oslo Center theater in Oslo Norway of course um that's active with oric cast so oric cast broadcasts are available within that public venue the Lincoln Center in New York the Smithsonian and Kennedy Center has orac cast as well and lastly there's a Marriott Theater in Illinois that has or cast capabilities also and then as far as you know future deployments I can't name names but we know of Opera Houses um Cinemas and theaters and sports venues that are going to turn up orac cast throughout um 2025 so you know with that said I mean we've got really strong progress with the oric cast and I would expect you know over the coming year it's not going to be you know like this year you're going to see more and more orac cast I I look at it and think think about it as kind of like Wi-Fi in the early days call it like early 2000s you know there was or Wi-Fi in some locations or cast is going to be the same way you're going to gradually see more and more orac cast and which I suspect you know in the next 5 10 years you will see oric cast almost in any public location that you go so thank you
2025-04-16 01:15
