Autonomic added an AMX module to its portfolio, enabling control between its multizone digital amplifiers and the AMX platform. The AMX driver is available to authorized Autonomic integrators via download and offers full control including volume, mute, power, source selection and equalization, said Autonomic.

Citing a “resurgence” of analog music lovers who want to listen to vinyl records, Pioneer announced a $299 turntable Thursday. The PL-30 is built on a dual-layer chassis with a 4mm metal plate. It includes a phono equalizer to work with audio receivers that don’t have a phono stage and has a “through” selector that allows the turntable to be used with a preamp, integrated amp or receiver that has its own phono stage, the company said. The moving-magnet phono cartridge on the PL-30 comes pre-mounted, and the player spins 33-1/3 and 45 rpm records.

Sonos launched its first limited-edition speaker in a partnership with Blue Note Records and is looking to form similar deals with companies that “share our passion for collaboration, design and a great music experience,” company spokesman Eric Nielsen told us Wednesday. The Sonos Play:1 Blue Note Limited Edition speaker ($250), carries a $50 premium over the standard Play:1 and includes an exclusive channel within TuneIn's Blue Note on Sonos radio station that will be available for a year, Sonos said. After the year, "as of now, it will just simply end," Nielsen said of the exclusive channel. The Blue Note Artist Selects channel, offering exclusive playlists, will become available to customers when they buy the limited edition speaker and will be programmed exclusively into the menu for the speaker, Nielsen said. Customers who buy the speaker also will have access to the channel via other Sonos speakers they own, he said. Two other Blue Note stations on TuneIn are available to all Sonos users. Despite the name and the color of the Blue Note speaker -- with a finish that transitions from dark navy to cerulean blue -- the speaker doesn't include Bluetooth, Nielsen said. Sonos is producing 4,100 units, which will be available while supplies last, and timing for purchases will be released in coming weeks, Sonos said.

Riva Audio’s Turbo X premium Bluetooth speaker is now selling through Brooks Berdan Ltd., Car Concepts, Crutchfield, Huppins, Listen Up, OneCall, Shelley's Stereo Hi-Fi Center Inc., WiredForLess and World Wide Stereo, the company told us in a post-CES update. The Riva Turbo X ($349) is one of several high-end Bluetooth speakers coming to market from manufacturers including B&W, Bang & Olufsen, Bose and Harman Kardon, which are hoping to ride the popularity wave of Bluetooth speakers with products that stand above the pack in audio quality. Gibson Brands said Wednesday it plans to launch high-fidelity Bluetooth speakers under the Onkyo brand as part of a collaboration with Woox Innovations (see 1501280042). The Turbo X packs three 60mm full-range custom drivers designed by parent company Audio Design Experts and is rated at 45 watts RMS power. Its rechargeable battery is said to deliver 26 hours’ battery life on a single charge, and the speaker can function as a speakerphone. The Turbo X can also charge other portable devices, the company said. At a suite in the Westgate Hotel in Las Vegas during CES, Riva demonstrated a smaller Turbo Bluetooth speaker set for delivery later this year along with prototypes of home theater speakers. The company is also planning a wireless multiroom audio product, according to ADX Chief Creative Officer Rikki Farr.

Onkyo is teaming up with Woox Innovations, the Philips audio and lifestyle business that Gibson Audio bought last summer (see 1407010065), on a long-term partnership for product development and distribution. Initially the partnership will focus on high-fidelity Bluetooth speakers and headphones under the Onkyo brand, the companies said in a news release Wednesday. Consumers’ appetite for “hassle-free, high-quality music” at home and on the go in “Japan and the rest of the world” is a driving force for the partnership, which leverages Woox’s “extensive global sales organization” in more than 100 countries, said Onkyo President Munenori Otsuki. With both companies under the Gibson Brands' umbrella, the partnership “further advances Gibson Brands’ ambition to become the largest music lifestyle company in the world,” he said. Onkyo’s e-onkyo music, which launched in 2005, is the largest hi-res music download store in Japan, and earlier this month the company announced the launch of hi-res music download stores in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. Meridian, a company with a hi-res audio format, said at CES Onkyo was one of the companies it was in discussions with for music and audio products compatible with its MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) hi-res audio format (see 1412050023). It said Wednesday it's developing a "new method of enjoying Hi-Res audio in a non-PC environment and introducing products capable of working with Master Quality Authenticated (MQA)." Onkyo and Woox said the partnership will enable them to “respond quickly to changing user needs and rapidly advancing technology” in fast-growing market segments.

Sonos applied fixes to its software in an update that corrects problems caused by a new app launch last spring, the company said Tuesday in a blog post. Android users could try a beta version of the new software in update 5.3 beginning Tuesday, and a full fix will be available for Android and iOS users in the coming months, the company said. The update addresses changes to the software last spring that “made some things worse,” said the post, including a change that made it more difficult to move music between rooms and the removal of features from the previous app such as a track progression bar. The new software also didn’t make good use of a tablet's screen size in the tablet app, Sonos said. Tuesday’s update, “intended to make things better,” offers a faster way to manage the Sonos rooms in a home with a more accessible rooms menu that’s available to users by tapping the top of any screen in the Sonos app, the company said. The new tablet app has dedicated screens for what’s playing and music discovery on iOS and Android tablets that make toggling between screens “more intuitive,” it said. Using a swipe down motion in the new software, users can quickly switch between screens on their phones and then swipe left to right to show music sources, Sonos said. A cross-fade feature allows users to blend tracks within the info menu, it said, and the track progression bar is back on the now-playing screen allowing users to access a particular point in a song with a drag motion.

A rule change for measurement procedures in the 1920-1930 MHz band, used mainly for cordless phones, backstage intercoms and other voice-quality audio gear took effect Wednesday after publication in the Federal Register. The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology adopted revised rules in August, so that they now reference the 2013 version of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) C63.17 standard instead of the 2006 standard. Fletcher Heald called the development “a bit of regulatory tidying up” and questioned why publication had taken so long, in a blog post Wednesday.

Summit Semiconductor is developing a next-generation chipset for the WiSA (Wireless Speaker and Audio) standard that’s Wi-Fi-compliant, exceeds performance levels of the current solution and will meet channel requirements and sample rates for object-based audio platforms from Dolby and DTS, Tony Parker, vice president-marketing and product development, told Consumer Electronics Daily in an email. The chipset, due in the market in 2016, will enable a system cost “approaching Bluetooth” for the mass market, Parker said. Summit has been the sole supplier of ICs for WiSA-based products, which have been slow to come to market while Summit has demonstrated the technology at CES for the past four years. To date, only Aperion Audio, Bang & Olufsen and Sharp, with a universal disc player, have brought products to market with the WiSA logo. But that’s about to change with some 36 companies now part of the WiSA Association and LG Innotek bringing its own wireless transmitter and receiver products to market for use by LG Electronics and other CE companies, according to a CES announcement. An association spokeswoman told us the WiSA Association expects to see “a hybrid of wired and wireless systems” to address object-based audio over the next couple of years. At CES, WiSA released to members a compliance test specification for home theater and multiroom/whole house distributed audio. Klipsch, an early member of the WiSA Association, announced at CES its first WiSA-certified system. The 5.1-speaker system, part of the Klipsch Reference Premier line, is due to ship in Q3 (see 1501160040). Estimated suggested retail price of the six-piece setup is $5,000-$6,000, according to Tony Ostrom, vice president-product development, Klipsch Group. Startup Enclave Audio also bowed its premier product at CES, a 5.1-channel WiSA-enabled home theater system certified due in May at $1,199 (see 1501070006).

Twitch created an online library of “free-to-use” music, it said in a news release. The music is intended for Twitch users creating their own videos, it said Thursday. The Twitch Music Library has more than 500 songs “provided by established and burgeoning labels,” Twitch said. “Twitch will be continually adding to this library as more music industry partners become part of the system.” The tracks in the library “will not be flagged by the audio recognition system implemented in 2014 to protect audio copyright holders,” Twitch said. Along with the library, Twitch has created a new video category for user-created and -performed music, said the company.

The crowd at Seattle's Century LinkField has become famously known as the “12th Man” for its propensity to make noise that bolsters the success of the Seattle Seahawks. New England Patriots fans can be loud, too. But speaker supplier Klipsch worked to prepare the Indianapolis Colts for a hostile crowd in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Sunday for the AFC Championship game. Klipsch reworked the audio system at the Colts' indoor practice facility, using 18 professional Klipsch speakers matched with half a dozen subwoofers to replicate the crowd noise at Gillette Stadium. “Sound is a major component of our daily practice routines,” said Pete Ward, chief operating officer with the Indianapolis Colts, in a Klipsch news release. “Klipsch loudspeakers work really well for us because they are highly efficient and deliver a very clean sound even at the high-volume levels we require.” The Colts went to Klipsch before the 2013 season with the goal of creating a sound environment through loudspeakers that could mimic “any of their opponents’ home fields,” Klipsch said, which includes indoor and outdoor facilities. Klipsch engineered three portable systems that can be cart-mounted and positioned around the relevant field, featuring an array of Klipsch Tractrix horns to allow the Colts “to create powerful and detailed sound in a sprawling outdoor space,” Klipsch said. Klipsch Brand Ambassador Andrew Luck, the Colts quarterback, and his teammates "can rest assured that they have received the best possible preparation for New England’s crowd,” Klipsch said.