New Parrot Hands-Free 'Music Kit' with Audio Streaming will be Music to your Ears!
NEW YORK--For the 50 million owners of MP3 devices who would prefer to listen to their own music in their cars, this news will be music to your ears: Parrot plans to introduce the industry’s first hands-free cell phone car kit with streaming audio capability that allows you to play your favorite tunes through you car stereo. The MK6000 will be available in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2007 and will be priced at $239.99 MSRP.
Now, your car or SUV can be your personal “jukebox on wheels” while providing hands-free Bluetooth® cell phone capability. Editor’s Note: High-resolution images of the Parrot MK6000 available at http://www.parrot.biz/albums/mk6000/.
It’s easy to use. Just start your car, pair your smart phone or other MP3 device (that has Bluetooth A2DP) with the MK6000, and enjoy listening to your music library over your car’s stereo system. And because it’s Bluetooth-based streaming, there are no tangled wires or concerns about having the right size jacks or adapters.
“The MK6000 is the second in a new series of advanced Bluetooth products from Parrot that take advantage of today’s fastest growing consumer technologies – audio streaming and Bluetooth,” said Edward Valdez, president and COO of Parrot Inc.
“Mobile music is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity for millions of people who take their music with them on their smart phone, iPod™ or other portable music device. This latest innovation allows consumers to enjoy their personal music in their vehicles -- without compromising sound quality -- with any device that enables Bluetooth A2DP. A few months ago we introduced the Parrot SOUND SYSTEM with audio streaming – our wireless speaker system for home and office use. Now, Parrot is introducing a breakthrough technology for consumers’ vehicles by combining audio streaming with hands-free Bluetooth cell phone capabilities. Audio streaming is poised to be the next “big thing” in mobile electronics.”
In addition to audio streaming, the new MK6000 features two other ground-breaking Parrot innovations for car kits: “beamforming” technology for exceptional voice quality while phoning, and a new text-to-speech synthesis function that will “read” the phone book listings to you.
Beamforming is an advanced signal processing technique that measures and compares the difference in sounds as they are heard by two separate microphones in order to identify and emphasize a primary voice, for instance, while filtering out the secondary sounds. It does this by means of a unique highly directional double microphone that captures the speaker’s voice while canceling extraneous noises such as wind, sirens, road construction and other voices in the car.
The text-to-speech synthesizer makes this car kit easy to use and eliminates having to go through complicated sequences with buttons. For example, you can simply select the “Ss” in car kit’s phone book and listen to the names being read one after the other: "Paul Smith…Peter Stone…Paula…". Then, with a single click you can dial their telephone number without touching your phone.
The MK6000 has a simple one-button user interface or control unit that mounts on your dashboard. Its six functions control all the music functions such as play, fast forward, and track selection, as well as phone functions.
Like all of the advanced car kits in the Parrot product line, the MK6000 allows drivers to make calls, take calls and check voicemail without ever having to touch their cell phone while driving thanks to Parrot’s advanced voice recognition technology. And its software can also be updated via the Parrot web site (www.parrot.biz) where new software can be downloaded at anytime.
In addition, the MK6000 automatically mutes the vehicle stereo when a call is being made or received. It also features an expanded phone book capacity – up to 8,000 names – and Parrot’s standard 150 voice tags, and is compatible with many Bluetooth phones on the market.
Technical specifications:
- Pairing: with up to 5 phones - Bluetooth 1.2
- Interface: 5 buttons + 1 advanced scrolling wheel, with play/pause functions
- Integrated voice-activated menus
- Parrot Beamforming: omni-directional double microphone, along with advanced signal processing software, including noise reduction and echo cancellation
- Audio streaming capabilities with every type of stereo Bluetooth source (A2DP peripherals): mobile phones, MP3 players, PDAs, etc. (in some cases, the user must add a Bluetooth Version 2.0 + with A2DP).
- Text-to-Speech (TTS): voice generation that reads the mobile phone's contact list out loud.
- Number of contacts: 8,000 max in total with TTS; 150 per paired up telephone without TTS
- Number of voice tags: 150 max in total with TTS; 150 per paired up telephone without TTS
- Bluetooth profiles: HSP 1.5, HFP, A2DP, AVRCP, OPP Sync, SPP, PBAP
Parrot offers the broadest lineup of Bluetooth-enabled products available. The company plans to introduce several more new products in the next 12 months.
| Parrot Bluetooth Product Line | |||
| MOBILE ELECTRONICS PRODUCTS | |||
| Portable Units | Professionally installed car kits | ||
|
|
||
| HOME & OFFICE PRODUCTS | |||
|
|||
ABOUT PARROT: “We Put Bluetooth® in Your Life”
Founded in 1994, Parrot has rapidly established itself as a major global player for wireless peripherals around the mobile phone. Capitalizing on the know-how acquired in the fields of voice recognition and digital signal processing technologies, Parrot has been one of the first companies to develop Bluetooth® wireless hands-free car kits, having identified this standard’s great potential as early as 1999. In 2005, Parrot sold 865,000 units. Determined to be part of the mobile telephone’s increasing importance in day-to-day life, Parrot has developed two new products in 2006: the Parrot Photo Viewer, an LCD photo frame designed to display photos transmitted from a mobile telephone via Bluetooth, and the Parrot SOUND SYSTEM, a wireless hi-fi system with Bluetooth®-enabled speakers. Parrot has achieved strong growth in its consolidated revenues, up from €29.2m in 2004 to €62.5m (€80.9m pro forma) in 2005. www.parrot.biz./www.parrotcorp.com Euronext Paris – Eurolist, Compartment B (mid caps): FR0004038263 - PARRO
®The Bluetooth word mark and logos are owned by the Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by Parrot S.A. is under license. Other trademarks and trade names are those of their respective owners. All rights reserved. The PARROT brands presented in this document are the exclusive property PARROT. All other brands are the property of their respective owners and used under license by PARROT.