Imagine: you get into your car, start-up, turn on the stereo, set it and drive off.

With Audiostat onboard, you won't ever have to touch the volume control knob on your journey.

There have been many attempts to introduce the obvious benefit of automatic ambient noise compensation to the car audio market. Alpine tried it and failed and currently some models of Mercedes Benz, BMW, Jaguar, GM and Chrysler have what they "quietly" refer to as noise compensating audio systems. The attention that would normally be attached to such an important product improvement, is conspicuously absent from the sales material.

Why? Because they just don't work very well. These systems rely on engine speed to trigger a number of pre-set adjustments to the stereo volume level. As engine speed increases, so the stereo volume is notched up. However, an open window or sunroof, wind noise in general, rain noise, road surface and tire noise, kids in the back making a racket, a truck thundering by on the highway - none of these important sources of ambient noise will make one iota of difference to this type of noise- compensating audio system. If you are stopped at the lights, with the engine idling and a truck rolls up beside you, today's noise compensating stereo will not respond to the increased level of ambient noise.

Why? Because they do not "hear" what you hear. None of them operate on a true signal-to-noise protocol and as a result they provide only a crude and incomplete response to the problem of fluctuating levels of ambient noise and its impact on the intelligibility of the car audio system. They are also very expensive, which is why you only find them in the most expensive cars.

Audiostat technology now lets you "do the job properly" with a price and performance breakthrough that will allow this benefit to be added to all car audio (infotainment) systems.

How does it work?
At the heart of Audiostat automatic ambient noise compensation technology is DSS1100 our proprietary DSP microcontroller. With Audiostat, SmartSpeaker Corp. has developed the first and only audio thermostat. It is the most cost-effective solution to fluctuating levels of ambient noise for car audio systems. Audiostat makes the manual volume control obsolete.

Audiostat technology is based on psychoacoustics - an algorithm that models the human ear / brain system. It provides true signal to noise ratio and importantly it is embeddable in the form of a DSP chip. The system requires a sense microphone, which hears exactly what you hear - the volume and frequency spectrum of the audio signal, in the context of the volume and the frequency spectrum of the ambient noise. Then it automatically and seamlessly adjusts the level of the audio signal to achieve optimum intelligibility, without ever getting too loud.

Where you put the sense microphone in the car is not critical because the sound characteristics inside a car are quite homogeneous. We recommend locating it in the stereo head unit itself, elsewhere in the dashboard, in the driver's head rest or in the overhead light cluster. These last two remote locations will add to the installed cost and may not necessarily result in a better performing product.

Imagine; you get into your car, start-up, turn on the stereo, set it and drive off. With Audiostat onboard, you won't ever have to touch the volume control knob on your journey. Audiostat does it for you and it does it far better than we humans could ever do it. Thousands of tiny adjustments every second, result in a seamless response that is almost completely transparent. All you hear is great stereo sound, always intelligible, never too loud - a greatly enhanced sound system in even the least expensive cars !

Clearly the arrival of Audiostat technology will be significant in the history of car audio. It will create a new standard. The technology is readily available to be embedded in your products and we can provide you with extensive technical support to help you fast track your product development process. Call us.