IoT: Update on Matter for audio device control

In case you haven’t heard of it yet – Matter is an open-source connectivity standard for smart home and IoT (Internet of Things) devices. It’s endorsed by the biggest companies in the tech industry and has been on everyone’s lips for a few years already. That’s why we think it won’t be the “15th competing standard”, but the IoT standard of the future.

Having joined the CSA Alliance early in 2022 as an early adopter – we have stepped up our involvement! By becoming a Participating Member, we are joining forces with the CSA Alliance to ensure that audio-only platforms and smart speakers are being heard have all the right functionalities implemented.

You may say: “Hey, there’s a speaker type defined in the spec! What are you talking about?”
Indeed it is. The problem is, that it’s assuming a very basic “dumb” speaker and only offers volume up/down and on/off functions. We think this is not enough for modern audio products.

Hence we are collaborating with key industry players in a dedicated workgroup, to be at the forefront of developing a more versatile and user-friendly audio standard within the Matter framework. This partnership underscores a collective effort to push the boundaries of smart audio, offering users seamless streaming and superior sound quality across various devices.

Lastly, we hope that the addition of Matter video casting capabilities pioneered by Amazon at CES 2024, which also requires (surprise, surprise!) the addition of streaming audio content to speakers to complete the experience, will likely have a positive impact on the smart audio speaker specification definition!