Ultra thin speaker offers superior sound quality for tablet devices

Due to launch in September this year, the HIAM-SS2S SoundSleeve is small, lightweight and comprises a pair of 2W peak audio power exciters attached to a honeycomb panel. According to HiWave, it can be incorporated into any tablet sleeve to achieve enhanced audio quality and volume. Designers can incorporate amplifier and interface electronics into the module by positioning a printed circuit board and battery pack into the cavity provided in the shell. James Lewis, company ceo, believes the device will allow tablet's such as the iPad to become a 'personal cinema'. "With tablet computing led by Apple's iPad now finding a place in so many people's daily lives, there is a rapidly growing market for protective sleeves that also deliver top quality audio for entertainment and conferencing to the tablet user on the move. HiWave's flat speaker technology is the ideal solution to take tablet audio to the next level." The Cambridge based company is also developing a new amplifier chip and reference design for high end applications. This will optimise audio quality using the on chip audio processing core to equalise the signal and take into account the materials and assembly of any SoundSleeve design. HiWave claims the Audium chip's signal processing capability will further enhance low frequency performance and widen the stereo effect from a small format tablet sleeve.