Frontier Smart Technologies is adding support for AirPlay 2 to its SmartSDK (software development kit). The company is previewing its AirPlay 2 implementation at this year’s CES.
Announced in June, AirPlay 2 adds multi-room audio capabilities to AirPlay’s existing abilities. It also enables the use of Siri to initiate and control playback to compatible speakers and devices (such as the Apple TV).
AirPlay 2 is Apple’s followup to the original AirPlay Wi-Fi-based music playback standard. While Sonos popularized Wi-Fi-based multi-room audio playback, Bluetooth became ubiquitous, and multi-platform Wi-Fi audio standards spread in popularity, the tech giant lacked a competing story until today’s announcement.
The Frontier SmartSDK is a multi-ecosystem software solution that enables third party brands and manufacturers to develop smart audio products quickly and cost-effectively, according to Frontier Smart Technologies CEO Anthony Sethill.
“For third party brands, this functionality will allow speakers to be seamlessly controlled from an iPhone or iPad using the Apple Music or Podcasts apps, by asking Siri, and in third party apps which support AirPlay,” he adds. “This will be an important differentiator in the increasingly competitive Smart Audio space.”
