T3 India

Technology

Ambrane launches the AeroSync Wireless Powerbank which is autographed by Ravindra Jadeja

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One of the country’s forerunners in developing mobile accessories, Ambrane, have launched a limited edition wireless powerbank which is signed by Ravindra Jadeja, one of the Indian cricket team’s best all-rounders who is also Ambrane’s brand ambassador.

The AeroSync PB houses a 10,000mAh lithium-polymer battery and it supports both wireless and wired charging with 15W and 20W QC/PD outputs, respectively. This compact and sleek powerbank is designed keeping the modern work and streaming culture in mind and it also comes with a unique Mag-Safe technology with a non-slip finish and firm magnetic grip to ensure safety. This technology is compatible with iPhone 12 and above.  

The 20W fast-charging output can charge any mobile to up to 50% within 30 minutes on an average, Ambrane claims. The powerbank can be charged through a Type-C port and it takes a little over 3 hours to charge it fully. The AeroSync powerbank is compatible with all devices charged through a USB or Type-C port. A multi-layer charging protection technology ensures a safe charging experience for the users.

“I am thrilled to partner with Ambrane and launch the unique powerbank in India. The powerbank truly defines my personality, being fast, powerful, and robust. I am certain my fans would love to use the handy gadget, as much as I do,” says Ravindra Jadeja, Brand Ambassador, Ambrane.

The AeroSync powerbank comes with a 365 days warranty and is priced at Rs. 3,999. For more information, please visit this page.

A Simple 5-step Path to Setting up a Home Theatre: Audio POV

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Over the last year, the importance of quality home entertainment has increased. To better understand the impact 2020 has had on entertainment, Dolby conducted a consumer study with Wakefield Research, which revealed that Indian consumers are prioritizing and seeking better experiences possibly driven by long hours spent at home. Indian consumers are spending more on quality to better connect with content—and to connect with each other.

There was a clear shift in consumer preference for premium content experiences. Consumers are willing to invest in premium quality content and in devices and are being able to have an enhanced audio and visual experience. The study reveals that 94% of consumers in India are willing to pay more for a premium subscription for enhanced video & audio quality, whereas 96% of them will upgrade their entertainment equipment in the span of the next 6 months.

There is a variety of equipment available in the market, depending upon one’s budget, area, and technology upgrade. Many of us hear “home theatre” and think of soundproof rooms, cushioned seats, and a large screen. However, building a home theatre does not need to break a bank.

Whether you want to upgrade the audio in your living room or invest in a full home cinema set-up, here are our recommendations to ensure you get a seamless entertainment experience.

Space Optimisation

Where you plan to set up your system can dictate what you will need. If you have a fairly large room, invest in a home theatre system but for a smaller room, you could go with a soundbar with a sub-woofer.

If you are doing up a big room and want surround sound with a theatre experience, go for a 5.1 or 7.1 channel surround sound system. This has 5 or 7 separate speakers, including a centre speaker, and an audio-video receiver or home theatre. For an immersive experience, get a Dolby Atmos-enabled sound system.

Large speakers can overwhelm a small room. Hence, when setting up a home entertainment system in a smaller space, consider getting a Dolby Atmos-enabled soundbar.

Another important aspect is to buy a home theatre system that has a Dolby Vision compatible logo. This will pass High Dynamic Range Dolby Vision video through the home theatre to the television and will enable you to enjoy the HDR content.

Allocate the right budget

When you plan the home entertainment system, it is important to understand how to divide your budget. Don’t neglect the speakers. They are a critical component in experiencing great sounding audio. While planning the setup, allocate the bulk of your budget (up to 80%) on speakers and about 20% on the amplifier. Don’t spend large amounts of money on unnecessary features or a very expensive amplifier.

A common misconception is that all home theatre devices which deliver a cinematic experience are expensive. Today, an Indian consumer can find living room audio devices with next-generation object-based immersive audio technology like Dolby Atmos, at various price points that suit the needs of the price and quality conscious Indian consumer.

Choose the right supporting equipment

Video accounts for a major part of the cinema experience. The right television can enhance your entertainment manifold. It is recommended to go with 4K (or UHD) televisions that support Dolby Vision HDR and are Dolby Atmos enabled. Another important consideration is the eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel) feature found in most new smart televisions. This enables you to transmit the original full-resolution audio signal back through the HDMI cable to your home theatre or soundbar and reproduce immersive audio without compromise. The home theatre should always be connected to the ARC/ eARC port of the television.

If there is no eARC port available on the television, it may be better to connect your media streaming device (TV stick) directly with the home theatre system for enhanced audio output.

Everything In the Right Place

Nowadays, most home theatre systems and soundbars are easy to plug and play. However, one needs to consider the positioning of the speakers while setting it up. For optimal effect, place your Dolby Atmos enabled speakers at the height of your ears when seated, with no obstructions between you and the speakers.

A soundbar should be placed beneath the television screen. Some Dolby Atmos enabled soundbars have speakers which point upwards and reflect sound off the roof for an enhanced immersive experience. If you have one of these, take care that these speakers don’t get obstructed by the TV. Keep the soundbar below and slightly ahead of the TV.

The Final Touches

The most crucial part after installing a home theatre system is the final alignment of the system. 90% of home theatres have an auto-alignment feature. A small microphone is usually provided, which should be placed at the listening position while running the auto-alignment process. This usually results in optimum quality output. Make sure to keep the listening environment completely silent during the alignment process to guarantee the best results. 

To get the best immersive experience, it is recommended that you stream content in Dolby. Stream your favourite content from Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video or any other streaming service in the unmatched combination of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. People often assume that setting up a home theatre is an overwhelming task, but the key is to get the basics right. Plan it right and enjoy an immersive cinema-like experience in your home

About the Author

Pankaj Kedia is Managing Director for Emerging Markets at Dolby Laboratories and has been with the company since 2009. In his current role, he has developed and executed strategy for growing Dolby’s business across the Emerging Markets region. He has also helped in driving the adoption of Dolby’s technology across the Consumer Entertainment ecosystem. Prior to this, he has worked with Autodesk as their Business and Regional Manager for 11 years. He has an experience of over 25 years in digital entertainment and technology.

Ericsson Gearing Up for 5G Deployment in India

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India is gearing up to implement 5G and there are already a barrage of 5G-ready devices filling the telecom market. Ericsson is all set to help in this effort. We spoke to Nitin Bansal, Head of Ericsson India and Head of Network Solutions Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania & India on the progress and challenges.

Is India 5G ready? When can we expect the first commercial launch in India?

India is currently the world’s second-largest telecommunications market and over the years has continued to register strong growth. With the market witnessing strong mobile broadband penetration, we believe India is ready for 5G and affordable 5G spectrum needs to be made available to the operators. Given the ‘long-term benefits’ that 5G technology will bring to India, it needs to be viewed as critical infrastructure and the foundation on which the Digital India vision can be realized.

From a technology readiness perspective, Ericsson is ready to roll out 5G in India having deployed it across 93+ live networks across the globe. In fact, the Ericsson Radio System hardware has been 5G-ready since 2015 enabling operators to upgrade to 5G with a remote software installation. As India gets ready to embark on its 5G journey, we are committed to working with our customers, partners, and the academic community to design and curate India-specific use-cases and to create the right ecosystem for 5G in India.

From a consumer perspective, there is a high interest for 5G in India and more importantly, they are willing to pay a premium for the new capabilities that 5G brings. Our recent consumer lab study ‘Five ways to a better 5G’ states that at least 40 million smartphone users in India could adopt the 5G technology in the first year of the launch and Indian users are willing to pay as much as 50 percent more for 5G plans, provided they are bundled with new services.

5G launch is linked to the availability of spectrum and in our view 2022 will be the year for 5G introduction in India.  

How do you see the deployment of 5G in India? Who will be the early adopters?

Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and fixed wireless access (FWA) are expected to be the early use-cases for 5G in India.

From the consumer perspective, 5G ready smartphone users in India already spend more time on enhanced video and multiplayer mobile gaming. As I said, our Consumer Lab study states at least 40 million smartphone users in India could take up 5G in the first year of 5G being made available with consumers even willing to pay 50 percent more for 5G plans with bundled digital services, compared to just 10 percent premium for 5G connectivity. Further, India showed the biggest rise in intention to upgrade with 67% of users expressing an intention to take up 5G once it is available, an increase of 14 percentage points over 2019.

The latest Ericsson Mobility Report reveals that 5G will represent around 26 percent of mobile subscriptions in India at the end of 2026, estimated at about 330 million subscriptions. Like early global trends with the advent of 5G in India, we expect new uses cases to emerge across industries over time, creating more value and ROI for telecom operator’s overtime.  

What are the specific early 5G trials use cases we will see in India?

As I said earlier, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and fixed wireless access (FWA) are expected to be the early use-cases for 5G in India. These will help address the concern of the limited fixed broadband penetration levels in India and improve the data experience for consumers while on the move. Over time, we expect more enterprise related use cases to come up by leveraging the benefits of 5G in sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, education etc.

In India, we have been working with our operator partners as well as the academic community to test and curate various 5G use cases that are most relevant to the country. Earlier this year, we partnered with Airtel to demonstrate 5G on a live network in Hyderabad city. Leveraging Ericsson’s dynamic spectrum sharing technology, Airtel conducted this trial over its existing liberalized spectrum in the 1800 MHz band. In June this year, we also partnered with Bharti Airtel once again to demonstrate enhanced speeds of over 1 GBPS at a live 5G network that we set up at Cyber Hub in Gurgaon using Bharti’s 3500 Mhz trial spectrum. Most recently, we enabled Airtel to successfully conduct India’s first cloud gaming session in a 5G environment at Manesar

What are the various challenges in deploying 5G in India? How is Ericsson helping Indian operators overcome those challenges?

The 5G roadmap in India is linked with spectrum availability , the investments by service providers  & the device ecosystem. Since 5G technology requires a great deal of spectrum, it should be made available at a reasonable price. This will continue to drive investments in network deployments.

Ericsson is a market leader when it comes to live 5G networks. Pioneering customers have chosen us as their 5G partner across the globe and we were the first ones to have deployed commercial live networks across five continents. As of now, we have 145 commercial 5G agreements and 96 live 5G networks globally. We have the right 5G portfolio in place to enable our customers to deploy 5G networks in all main frequency bands and utilize their valuable spectrum assets in the fastest and the most efficient way. This is proven in live networks with the best performance results, so our customers have every opportunity to be ahead with 5G.

Our Radio System Hardware has been 5G-ready since 2015, this will allow operators to upgrade to 5G with a remote software installation. We work closely with all Indian operators and continue to engage with them on their network evolution plans.

What is happening around the world in terms of 5G deployment? What role has Ericsson played in it?

5G networks have been rolled out much quicker than anticipated, and emphasis is given initially on consumer servicing and increasing capacity of the networks. We have been collaborating with leading service providers worldwide, more than 40 universities and technology institutes and 30 industry partners. Today we are powering more than 96 live 5G networks across the globe and have 144 commercial 5G contracts . We have worked on use cases in numerous industries in Europe, Asia as well as in Northern America. All three major communication service providers in the US have already launched commercial 5G services, both for fixed wireless access and mobile. North America ended 2020 with about 4 percent of its mobile subscriptions being 5G. Commercialization is now moving at a rapid pace and by 2026, Ericsson forecasts that 80 percent of North American mobile subscriptions will be 5G, the highest level of any region in the world

In South Korea, a large-scale 5G trial network was used already during the winter Olympic Games in 2018 and communications service providers launched commercial 5G services in the beginning of April 2019.

In 2019 we partnered with SK Telecom, the largest mobile operator in South Korea with nearly 50 percent of the market share, to switch on its commercial 5G network in the world’s fastest growing 5G market. South Korea has been able to add 10 million+ 5G subscribers of the 70 million users in total.

Do you think the Covid-19 has delayed or made any impact on the roll out of 5G in India? Also, how have the mobile operators fared in terms of handling COVID-19 crisis?

COVID-19 has emphasized the need for connectivity and 5G underpins the need for accelerated and seamless experiences for both consumers and enterprises both. There has been considerable growth in data traffic globally and India during the COVID-19 pandemic with the increased number of people working from home. An Ericsson Consumer Study revealed that while the average time spent on mobile broadband increased by one hour globally, in India, it went up by 2.2 hours per day. As opposed to the global trends where consumers are relying on fixed line networks, the Indian consumers are relying more on mobile broadband.

The dramatic changes in human behaviour patterns have caused measurable changes in the usage of both fixed and mobile networks worldwide. With more and more people working from home, traffic patterns on networks are witnessing unprecedented changes leading to traffic shifts from downtown to residential and suburban areas. This underpins the need for 5G services in India. 

This added load on networks has led to network re-planning and end-to-end re-dimensioning activities focusing on network design, capacity, performance, and traffic handling, to ensure that customer experience from the network is not compromised. Leveraging AI/ML tools have allowed service providers to act on network bottlenecks and in eliminating incidents and failures. Service providers continue to make necessary changes to respond to the evolving situation with speed and agility as well as invest in the networks to boost capacity to be able to tackle the demand.

With the ever-growing data demand and thrust on digitalisation, it is important for operators to manage the data loads and at the same time ensure the quality of service. 5G technology can help operators optimize the cost per GB by a factor of 10 and also enable them to tap new revenue streams over time.

How do you see the device ecosystem for the deployment of 5G in India? What role will it play in the adoption of 5G?

5G continues to be the fastest adopted mobile generation in history with subscriptions increasing at a rate about a million per day. In accordance with the recent study by Ericsson Consumer Lab called ‘The Future of Urban Reality’, 4 in 5 smartphone users are interested in buying a 5G handset in 2021. Moreover, at present, in India, there are about 22 percent 5G ready devices that can switch to 5G services once 5G is deployed in the country.

U&i have launched an affordable 10,000 mAh powerbank

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Powerbanks have become a necessity in recent times, for adventurers hiking up trails away from civilisation and to those who are constantly on-the-go. U&i, an Indian gadget accessory and consumer electronics brand, have launched a 6-in-1 powerbank: the Charter Powerbank.

The 10,000 mAh powerbank is not bulky and can easily slip into one’s pocket and it does come with notable features. It’s superior quality alloy plastic shell makes it dust and fireproof. It also has an inbuilt intelligent safety system that protects the device from overcharging, high temperatures, and short circuits.

The Charter powerbank is equipped with an LED battery indicator and it has 4 in-built charging cables with Type C, Mircro, and Lightning connectors. One can charge up to 6 different devices of 5V through the Charter powerbank.

Speaking on the launch, Paresh Vij, Founder, and Director, U&i quoted, “The newly launched Charter Powerbank is value for money device, a combination of style and utility for our valued subscribers. Through this launch, we are expanding our powerbank range and we’ll be looking forward to bring in superior and innovative products in the coming days.”

The U&i powerbank is priced at Rs. 2,499 and is available through all leading retail stores across India. For more information, please visit this page.

Yamaha RX-A4A Aventage is a new AV receiver home-theatre system that transforms viewing

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“Feel your walls melt away” is what Yamaha’s marketing tagline reads with respect to the all-new RX-A4A which is their latest home-theatre receiver system delivering breath-taking audio and high-quality visuals. The A4A comes packed with smart features and is integrated with AI to boost its performance.  This new 7-channel AVR system belongs to the AVENTAGE series of Yamaha and it strives to deliver high precision

The A4A makes users experience movies and games like never before with its state-of-the-art specs. Users can view or play games at 8K/60Hz or at 4K/120Hz (through a firmware update) that deliver an extremely higher quality of visuals. The gaming-dedicated functions, like ALLM, VRR, QMS, QFT, are all also available through a firmware update. Multiple and updated HDMI inputs support next-gen gaming consoles as well.

The RX-A4A is integrated with Yamaha’s proprietary sound field creation technology – the CINEMA DSP HD3 — which was created by combining ‘measured sound field data with digital signal processing. This means that the audio performance of the RX-A4A enables a realistic experience while viewing different kinds of scenes, which requires different kinds of recreation of sound – whether it is concert halls or a music club. The device analyses the acoustics of the user’s space or room and optimises the parameters of the sound accordingly.

The RX-A4A is powered by the 64-bit Qualcomm QCS407 which transforms the surround sound to the next level with support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Extraordinary signal-to-noise ratio and up to 120 dB of dynamic range for professional quality audio is also delivered through the SABRE ES9007S Premier Audio DAC.

More so, the RX-A4A system is self-sufficient when it comes to protecting its inners from external vibration. This is through the newly-design Anti-Resonance Technology (ART), H-shaped Cross Frame and a mechanical structure. The receiver stays still while delivering a crystal clear sound.

The Yamaha RX-A4A is also integrated with smart features like Alexa and Google Assistant as well. The receiver can be controlled through the users’ smartphones as well from the MusicCast App. The cutting-edge design of the RX-A4A houses a High Slew Rate Amplifier and has a rated output power of 135Watts. The device weighs 16.2 kg and consists of an Auto Power Standby mode, and an ECO mode. Here are the complete specifications of the RX-A4A:

The Yamaha RX-A4A is priced at Rs. 1,29,490.