Bluetooth® Audio

We offer several solutions for Bluetooth^® audio, voice and data as follows:

The Bluetooth audio software stack enables Bluetooth devices to locate each other and establish connections to exchange data and interact with one another over Bluetooth. It consists of the controller interface, the Bluetooth protocols that form the Bluetooth core and the Bluetooth profiles.

Low-complexity Subband Coding (SBC) is an audio coding scheme specially designed for Bluetooth audio and video applications to achieve high-quality audio transfer at medium bit rates while maintaining a low computational complexity. It is specified by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) for the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP). To ensure interoperability, the SBC codec is a mandatory requirement for A2DP support and all other codecs are optional. We offer a PIC32 Bluetooth Audio Package for MPLAB® Harmony to enable the SBC codec and A2DP audio. 

The PIC32 Basic Bluetooth Audio Package for Harmony is available from our purchasing portal: SW320024-1HPM.

Bluetooth Break-In mode is an application that allows multiple source devices to connect to one Bluetooth sink. Up to seven devices can pair and connect simultaneously, with the last commanded action becoming the device of focus. The PIC32 Break-in Solution offers support for both audio and SPP data applications. The SPP data application is included for free in the basic SPP Bluetooth software stack, and is configurable with the MPLAB Harmony Configurator. Break-in for audio applications carries an additional royalty surcharge per unit.

Hands-Free Profile (HFP) is a common profile used to enable a hands-free car kit or speaker system to connect to a phone source. In addition to the features found in the Headset profile, HFP adds last-number redial, call waiting and voice dialing.

Support for the HFP is available for the BM64 Bluetooth module and is included with the PIC32 Basic Bluetooth Audio Package for MPLAB Harmony, which is available on our purchasing portal: SW320024-1HPM.

A2DP defines the protocols and procedures that enable distribution of high-quality audio content over Bluetooth in mono or stereo channels. A typical usage case is wirelessly streaming music from a stereo music player to headphones or speakers. The audio data is compressed in an appropriate format for efficient use of the limited bandwidth. A2DP includes mandatory support for low-complexity Subband Coding (SBC) of an audio stream, but can also support MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and AAC codecs. MP3 audio is the more common reference to the MPEG-1 Part 3 audio compression standard.

The A/V Remote Control Profile defines the requirements for Bluetooth devices necessary for supporting remote control options and for tracking metadata access. This profile is designed to provide a standard interface to control Bluetooth sound docks, headphones, TVs and other devices and to allow a single remote to control all Bluetooth-enabled A/V equipment. For example, it can provide audio controls such as play, pause, skip forward, skip backward, fast forward and rewind. PIC32 MCUs now support AVRCP version 1.5, which includes provisions for bidirectional volume control. 

The A2DP/AVRCP is available without royalty when using the BM64 Bluetooth module. For use with an HCI module, A2DP/AVRCP is included in the PIC32 Basic Bluetooth Audio Package for MPLAB Harmony which is available from our purchasing portal: SW320024-1HPM.

Bluetooth SPP is the basic data transfer profile and serves as the basis for AVRCP and HSP profiles. This profile defines the requirements for Bluetooth devices necessary for setting up emulated serial connections using RFCOMM between two peer devices. Each serial port connection can connect two Bluetooth-enabled devices.