April 9, 2006 First we got wired, and now we’re getting unwired. Bluetooth took a long time to build momentum, but is now beginning to fulfil its promise with Paris-based Bluetooth specialist Parrot creating an ingenious pair of 60W stereo wireless speakers. Based on the premise people are increasingly carrying their music collection with them, and Bluetooth functionality will become ubiquitous across all handheld devices, the speakers can transform your iPod, mobile phone or handheld into a full blown 2 x 60W stereo system. There’s also a flexibility of room configuration available with the speakers that just wasn’t there before too – frequent furniture rearrangers will love the concept.
Bluetooth is likely to become ubiquitous - Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sanyo, NEC et al are launching mobile phones with music via Bluetooth support this year, Windows Mobile supports A2DP (audio streaming by Bluetooth) and Bluetooth dongles are available for iPods, and moist MP3 players. When that happens, Bluetooth speakers will be everywhere.
The Parrot system is very clever in its design. Each speaker is independent with its own built-in amplifier. The first speaker to detect a Bluetooth source becomes the master speaker and reproduces stereo channel 1. The second speaker pairs up with the master speaker and reproduces stereo channel 2.
The speakers are only available as a white hand-lacquered cabinet but the magnetic black speaker cover can be snapped on or off, and between the two configurations, suits most home or office décor. That’s it – nothing more to know – just keep the communication distance between the source and the speakers to less than 10 m / 33 feet.
Based in Paris and founded in 1994 by Henri Seydoux, its Chairman and CEO, Parrot S.A. is one of the profitable, fast-growing companies that emerged from the "start-up" generation. Parrot's core competence has been the technologies for embedded noise, robust voice recognition and signal processing, with applications in mobile computing and mobile communications.
The company also has a complete range of Bluetooth LCD picture frames which can be used in conjunction with your Bluetooth camera, mobile phone or Bluetooth computer to play slideshows of your photographic handiwork.
