Creative Announces the iRoar Smart Speaker

Creative Technology Ltd today announced the Creative iRoar Intelligent Portable Bluetooth Speaker System. This compact multipurpose iRoar represents the next step in the evolution of portable speakers — with its audio performance, expandability, intelligent audio processing, personalization and a collaborative open platform that allows for value-added third-party add-ons. And, it is twice as powerful as the original Sound Blaster Roar and has a huge 20-hour battery life. The Creative iRoar has been named a CES 2016 Innovation Awards Honoree product in the Home Audio/Video Components and Accessories category. The speaker will be showcased at CES 2016 — the world’s largest consumer electronics show.

At the heart of the Creative iRoar’s intelligence is the powerful, flexible and programmable multi-core floating point SB-Axx1 processor. It is responsible for all the audio and voice enhancement, and proprietary effect processing, as well as an open platform that allows users to customize the behaviour of the speaker. The built-in processor also allows the iRoar to function as a high-end sound card.

“The Creative iRoar is the most awesome portable speaker we have ever created. First of all, this all new intelligent speaker produces astoundingly powerful sound twice as loud as its predecessor — it’s like having two Roars in one. Besides its powerful performance, the most revolutionary aspect about the iRoar is the unsurpassed degree of customization it allows. With the incorporation of the intelligent SB-Axx1 multi-core floating point processor, and a smart device-based open-platform, users can now actually customize the speaker to function according to their personal preferences.

Moreover, with the open SDK, developers and VARs (value-added resellers) can program the speaker for completely different applications. From simply retargeting the buttons to programming the speaker to do something very different; all these are now possible. Beyond software customization, the open DDK (Docking Development Kit) allows them to expand the speaker system’s hardware through the docking expansion port according to their imagination — it opens up endless possibilities to reposition this speaker for all kinds of uses and applications in their projects. Honestly, no other speaker comes even close, I believe it’s certainly the most intelligent speaker on the planet,” said Sim Wong Hoo, creator of the Sound Blaster and CEO of Creative Technology Ltd.

“The amazingly versatile Creative iRoar is also suitable for professional use. You could choose to connect to an iRoar Mic wirelessly and instantly transform it into a powerful, portable, hasslefree personal public address system that is very affordable. If you are a budding musician, the iRoar with the iRoar Mic lets you perform a gig anywhere, any time. You can even connect the iRoar to an iRoar Rock external subwoofer unit. Together, they deliver deeper and more powerful bass with greater immersive surround sound. And with the iRoar Rock, your gigs will really rock!”

Acoustically Advanced Speaker Engineering
True to the award-winning pedigree found in the Sound Blaster Roar series, the top-of-the-line iRoar is engineered to take it even further with twice the loudness of the classic Sound Blaster Roar all without the need for doubling electrical power. This amazing engineering breakthrough is achieved through intensive research on speaker driver technologies, in conjunction with cutting-edge power amplifier circuitries, coupled with the integration of intelligent audio maximization technology via the processor-based BlasterX Acoustic Engine. This compact speaker actually features 5 speaker drivers, including a subwoofer: delivering over 40 Watts of sheer amplifier power. The lightweight speaker features dual lightweight highfrequency 2″ drivers for projecting far-field high-frequency dispersion. It also boasts a top-firing 2.75″ subwoofer that pushes bass upwards, plus two side-firing passive radiators to spread the bass out even farther. The iRoar also features 2 high-performance amplifiers — one dedicated to driving lows and mids, another solely for delivering highs – producing clear, spacious, well-balanced audio without compromising on the bass. As a result, the iRoar is able to deliver powerful room-filling audio that you can enjoy anywhere in your room.

Intelligent BlasterX Acoustic Engine
The BlasterX Acoustic Engine in the iRoar is a technology that intelligently optimizes and maximizes acoustic performance of the speaker drivers and amplifiers connected to it. It ensures that each speaker driver is driven to its full potential without compromising audio fidelity. This transforms the bi-amplified 5-driver sound system into an awesome booklet-sized audio powerhouse that delivers powerful audio with big immersive virtual surround in a small enclosure.

Intelligent Adaptive Audio Processing
The iRoar is able to intelligently expand the dynamic range of audio. Since the 1990s, there has been a trend to increase audio levels in recorded music to compensate for the limitations of playback devices in general. This has been done by compressing the dynamic range which results in loss of dynamics where the difference of the loud and soft passages of a song is reduced, sacrificing the musical authenticity and, ultimately, listener enjoyment. With this in mind, Creative has designed an intelligent processor-based Dynamic Range Expansion technology into the iRoar that automatically analyzes and restores dynamics in compressed audio tracks in real time so that music and dynamics don’t get sacrificed for sheer volume levels. The iRoar also includes Smart Volume technology that intelligently works in the background to minimize abrupt volume level changes during playback to prevent uncomfortable loudness shifts due to variations in loudness of recordings.

Intelligent Immersive Audio
The speaker also comes with the patented BlasterX Immersion technology based on Creative’s proprietary CMSS (Creative MultiSpeaker Surround) technology. These technologies allow the speaker to deliver an immersive listening experience with a wider soundstage, far beyond the footprint of this speaker.

Intelligent Speakerphone Teleconferencing
Users can expect to be heard loud and clear in call with the Adaptive Noise Reduction and Adaptive Acoustic Echo Cancellation technologies in the iRoar. Furthermore, the iRoar’s builtin microphones capture 360º sound around the speaker, or selectively within a certain focus range through the Mic Beam technology. When Private mode is activated, iRoar intelligently picks up and isolates the user’s voice within a 30º acoustic zone in front of the speaker. Sounds from this zone will be captured clearly, with ambient noises or other voices reduced outside this zone.

Intelligent Voice Morphing
The built-in SB-Axx1 processor also enables users to activate the Voice Morph function to change their voice in real time for fun presentations and games with friends and children. When the speaker is used in a teleconference call, users can change their voices on the fly with the use of the iRoar Dashboard app.

Intelligent User-Friendly Apps
Although the Creative iRoar is amazingly feature-rich, it has been designed to be easy enough to use. Intelligent technologies and user-friendly visually-rich automated user interfaces adaptively optimize audio, and responds to human behavior in the real world. This approach elevates the experience of a portable speaker to a new level of seamlessness and audio performance. Here are some of the ways Creative iRoar simplifies the user experience:

• iRoar Dashboard app The iRoar also comes with a suite of user-friendly iOS and Android mobile apps called the iRoar Dashboard that enables users to control the speaker remotely and adjust audio settings such as EQ, audio processing parameters, as well as microphone and voice controls directly from their phone with a graphically rich user-friendly interface – all at the touch of their fingertips. All these settings can be permanently stored in the speaker. Preset profiles allow for quick selection of optimized audio settings to match different types of audio.
• BlasterX is the default signature audio setting for the best listening experience
• Game On delivers pinpoint realism with enhanced cues for games
• Audiophile Bliss delivers original pure sound just as the artist intended
• Cinemania allows users to enjoy a full cinematic experience with explosive explosions and clear dialog
• Sonic Bass enhances bass with more resonance in the lower frequencies for thumping music
• Live Concert provides a more immersive sound for a concert atmosphere Every single profile can be further customized to create a new personal profile that suit personal preferences:
• Equalizer — A graphic equalizer offers flexibility in adjusting the amplitude of audio signals at particular frequencies.
• Immersion — Utilizing BlasterX Immersion technology, enjoy true-to-life immersive audio with a natural sense of audio depth, spaciousness and surround effects from your content.
• Dialog+ — Enhance voices in movies, music or games for clearer dialog. Hear the dialog over the rest of the soundtrack and over ambient noise in your listening environment. The iRoar Dashboard also includes Smart Volume technology that intelligently works in the background to minimize abrupt volume level changes during playback to prevent uncomfortable loudness shifts due to variations in loudness of recordings.
• iRoar Megaphone app Users can also easily access up to 18 Voice Morph options available on the iRoar Dashboard as well as the iRoar Megaphone app, great for having fun in a call or when the speaker is used as a PA system (public address system). The iRoar is also smart enough to inform users when a firmware update is available when users connect to the speaker with their smart device using the iRoar Dashboard app.
• iRoar Remote Assistant app This app turns an iPhone or Android device into an iRoar playback controller. Rather than just playing back music from a phone’s media library, iRoar Remote Assistant allows users to access audio stored on the microSD card within the iRoar. It shows the track and album of the track currently playing. With iRoar Remote Assistant, users can also trigger iRoar to record the audio sessions into the microSD card.

Pricing and Availability
Creative iRoar is priced at USD369.99. It is now available at the online store at www.creative.com. Creative iRoar Mic is priced at USD79.99 and is now available at the online store at www.creative.com. Creative iRoar Rock subwoofer unit is priced at USD149.99.