Sonos has updated its Arc Ultra soundbars with a new technology developed in a year-long collaboration with the UK’s Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID). This update upgrades the Arc Ultra’s Speech Enhancement tools, giving users access to four levels of dialogue clarity (Low, Medium, High and Max) to choose from within the Sonos app. During development, Sonos had people with different types stages of hearing loss test the new feature and provide feedback. This is the company’s first use of an AI sound processing tool within a product.
In an effort to ensure maximum dialogue clarity while retaining the cinematic feel of a film, Sonos partnered with film sound mixer Chris Jenkins to tune the upgraded Speech Enhancement features. During an interview, Sonos audio and AI engineers told TechRadar’s Matt Bolton that they originally planned there to only be three modes to choose from, but an additional level was added in an effort to maintain immersive sound effects.
The new Speech Enhancement tools are available now as a free update for Sonos Arc Ultra soundbars.
See also: Tech veteran Hugo Barra joins Sonos’ Board of Directors
