BlackBerry Helps Automakers Manage the Total Car Acoustic Experience

September 10, 2019

WATERLOO, Ont. – September 10, 2019 – BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) today announced the launch of the BlackBerry QNX® Acoustics Management Platform (AMP) 3.0, the latest version of its automotive acoustics software. With AMP 3.0 automakers can design and manage the total acoustic experience in their cars – saving costs and shortening time-to-production, while delivering new features and high sound quality.

Modern vehicles contain multiple acoustic and audio signal-processing systems, often sharing microphones and loudspeakers. These systems can interact with each other in unpredictable ways resulting in unpleasant feedback or echoes. QNX AMP 3.0 eliminates this issue by offering a unified approach to managing acoustics in the car and allowing subsystems to work together seamlessly.

“For automotive manufacturers, the need to meet increasing demands for in-car sound quality while incorporating new acoustic capabilities has resulted in increasing costs and complexity,” said Grant Courville, VP, Product Management and Strategy, BlackBerry QNX. “In response, QNX AMP 3.0 enables automakers to manage car acoustics holistically with a single software solution. Both the development savings and potential bill of materials cost reductions are significant, and will no doubt resonate with automakers.”

QNX AMP 3.0 is a modular and flexible system that allows automakers to activate just the features they need across their product line or for each option package as required. While previous releases provided the core acoustics functionality required in modern vehicles, with QNX AMP 3.0, chimes and safety alerts have been added to notify the driver of an impending threat or vehicle condition, alongside a complete speaker management package, providing OEMs with a one-stop acoustics shop that can scale from base level radios to premium audio.

Additional features include:

  • An advanced set of automated tuning, diagnostic and sound-design tools for microphones and speakers.
  • Flexibility to operate on multiple application processor cores such as ARM® Cortex-A and Intel® x86/x64
  • Support for virtualization, providing a seamless integration with Linux and Android guests.
  • Audio signal processing for speech recognition, telephony, high-resolution music reproduction, in-cabin speech enhancement, active noise control, sound-design and creation for both in-cabin reproduction and external pedestrian alerts, speaker cross-overs and cabin equalization.

QNX AMP 3.0 brings together a comprehensive package of automotive acoustic features including: QNX® Acoustics for Voice (QAV) for  high quality handsfree telephony and multi-zone speech recognition experience; QNX® ICC enabling the premier In-Car Communication solution; QNX® Active Sound Design (ASD) for reducing noise and enhancing and sculpting the sound profile of a vehicle – inside and outside the cabin; QNX® Software Audio Management (SAM) delivering a complete loudspeaker management and high-resolution media playback solution; and QNX® Chimes and Safety Alerts (CSA) – a comprehensive chime-generation and proprietary audibility monitoring solution for safety-critical sounds in the cabin.

See BlackBerry QNX AMP 3.0 in action at the Audio Engineering Society Automotive Conference in Germany (September 11-13). 

To learn more about QNX AMP 3.0, please visit http://blackberry.qnx.com/en/products/acoustic/amp.

ENDS

About BlackBerry

BlackBerry (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) is a trusted security software and services company that provides enterprises and governments with the technology they need to secure the Internet of Things. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company is unwavering in its commitment to safety, cybersecurity and data privacy, and leads in key areas such as artificial intelligence, endpoint security and management, encryption and embedded systems. For more information, visit BlackBerry.com and follow @BlackBerry.

Trademarks, including but not limited to BLACKBERRY and EMBLEM Design are the trademarks or registered trademarks of BlackBerry Limited and the exclusive rights to such trademarks are expressly reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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