Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

There has always been a saying in the headset world that Bluetooth headphones can only be heard. Make fun of, but it also reflects an indisputable fact: the loss of audio information in the process of wireless transmission is a problem that is difficult to overcome.

However, with Huawei's efforts in the audio field in recent years, the saying that "Bluetooth headsets can only be heard" seems to be a thing of the past soon.

On the 19th, at the 2023 GAS Audio Technology Summit jointly held by the fourth Electronic Academy and the Chinese Audio Association, the new L2HC standard was officially released, which is also China's first high-definition wireless audio codec standard.

From "HD" to "lossless", where is the strong L2HC? We know that the basic work flow of wireless headphones is that the front end encodes and compresses the sound information, then transmits it to the headset through Bluetooth, and then decodes and plays the sound information, which is called "codec".

The process of encoding and decoding involves the amount of "loss" of sound source information, which we often say is lossy and lossless, so it is closely related to the final sound quality performance and is a key factor affecting wireless audio quality.

The significance of the birth of L2HC protocol is to further reduce the "loss" in the process of coding, decoding and transmission of wireless audio transmission, and finally enable wireless headphones to achieve more extreme audio performance.

In the past, there are quite a number of audio codec protocols, such as AAC codec, SBC, LC3, etc., as well as aptX, LDAC, LHDC and so on. However, the peak bit rate of these codec protocols has never reached CD lossless 1.41Mbps.

Of course, in fact, when the bit rate reaches above 900Kbps, it has been able to achieve quite good sound quality performance, such as China's first high-definition wireless audio standard HWA, and Sony's Hi-Res Gold Standard, its peak bit rate can reach 900+Kbps, products certified by these standards can bring high-quality audio experience.

However, according to the consensus of the industry, in order to achieve real CD sound quality, we need 1.41Mbps bit rate (generally 44.1kHz / 16bit, code rate: 44.1 k × 16 × 2 ≈ 1.41Mbps) to achieve.

In fact, the above protocols are still a little short of the real CD sound quality.

As a result, a new L2HC standard was born.

The new L2HC standard extends the audio transmission rate to 64K~1920Kbps and supports 96kHz / 24bit HD audio transmission, which is the only audio codec standard that exceeds the CD lossless music transmission rate requirement (1.41Mbps).

Therefore, the birth of the new L2HC standard completely breaks the bottleneck of Bluetooth transmission speed and realizes true lossless audio signal transmission. The devices equipped with L2HC protocol will deliver the full timbre of CD audio to consumers without loss.

Not only that, L2HC standard not only has revolutionary advantages in transmission rate, but also the world's first unified architecture of full-rate wireless audio codec standard, and it is also a global leader in anti-interference, compatibility and so on.

For example, strong anti-interference advantages, based on scene changes, adaptive code rate switching to improve the anti-interference of wireless transmission; provide users with a stable HD audio experience in strong interference environments such as shopping malls and airports; high compatibility advantages, compatible with Bluetooth, Starflash and other transmission technologies; support 5ms and 10ms frame length, making audio transmission in watching video, playing games and space audio more immersive.

All in all, with the release of the new L2HC standard, the new standard of the wireless audio industry was born, which also symbolizes the development of the global wireless audio industry from "high definition" to "lossless".

Star flash core technology + L2HC agreement, Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3 launched a lossless audio revolution Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3, Huawei's flagship TWS headset, has been unveiled overseas. The headset will be equipped with the new L2HC 3.0. it will also be the industry's first "star flash" headset that uses the core technology of star flash connection-cum Polar code technology.

With the help of these two world-leading technologies, Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3 achieves the best transmission capacity in the industry, and with models such as Huawei Mate60 series, the transmission rate can reach 1.5Mbps, bringing true super-CD lossless sound quality.

With regard to NearLink, this is a new generation of wireless short-range communication technology. It complements the disadvantages of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, integrates their strengths, and is a technology that can really meet the needs of the Internet of everything. Like the L2HC agreement, Huawei is also a major contributor to star flash technology research and standard-setting.

The core technology of Starflash is the physical channel coding algorithm of Polar code.

So why does Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3 use this technology?

In fact, there has always been a pain point in Bluetooth communication technology, that is, with the improvement of the bit rate of audio signal transmission, the anti-jamming ability of audio signal will decrease significantly.

The purpose of Polar technology is to improve the anti-interference ability of audio Bluetooth transmission.

To take a simple example, the L2HC protocol is the fast lane, which allows all cars to drive fast on the road, and Polar code technology, that is, the traffic police on the fast lane, with their presence, these cars can drive safely and orderly. This is the function of Polar code technology.

Polar code technology increases the anti-jamming ability of audio Bluetooth transmission by two times, and L2HC makes the transmission rate reach the CD level. Finally, Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3 achieves Bluetooth transmission with high bit rate and high anti-interference.

Therefore, only L2HC is far from enough, but also need to be escorted by Polar code technology to ensure a continuous lossless, silky original sound quality experience. This is also the key core technology that Huawei has a huge advantage over other manufacturers.

In the end, in promoting the popularity of lossless audio experience, Huawei's identity is not only a leader, but also a promoter of the industry.

Huawei, for example, is a major contributor to L2HC standards. As early as Huawei FreeBuds Pro2, Freebuds5 products, has been equipped with Huawei's own patented wireless audio codec format L2HC.

This time, Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3 supports L2HC 3.0, which enables wireless headphones to truly achieve CD sound quality in terms of technology, which can be said to be a huge revolution in the entire wireless audio industry. The saying that "Bluetooth headsets can only listen to sound" will be withdrawn. On the other hand, the L2HC standard is also fully open source to the industry, which means that more audio devices will continue to join this fast track.

What is certain is that Huawei is still far ahead on this road.

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