Gracenote and Peiker Acustic Team To Offer World's Most Advanced Command and Control Solution for Digital Audio
Major Automotive OEMs to Deploy System in 2010 Model Year
Emeryville, California (July 26, 2007) — Gracenote®, a global leader in technology and services that are an integral part of the digital media economy, today announced it has partnered with Germany’s PEIKER acustic, an automotive electronics maker for top auto brands, to deliver the world's most capable, yet easy-to-use command and control module for connected audio devices within a vehicle. The new system will provide drivers the ultimate in-car digital audio experience with regards to simplicity and safety that until now was not available on even the most expensive, high-end audio units.
The explosion of digital media devices in the market today – including millions of MP3 players and hundreds of millions of music-enabled phones – has naturally incited a strong desire to connect those devices to car audio systems. However, to date, the solutions can be unsafe and primitive, offering lackluster user interface with minimal driver control (e.g., management of music with only basic 'play', 'next track', and 'pause' functions).
The new command and control solution offered by Gracenote and PEIKER combines Gracenote's Playlist Plus™ and MediaVOCS™ products, which offer drivers exceptional control over their media library, while also increasing safety in the car through easy recognition of music, automated one-touch personalized playlisting, and highly accurate voice control of the entire music playback experience.
Playlist Plus offers complete control of a portable music player, directly from the car audio head unit. When the driver plugs in their iPod or any MP3 player, or music enabled phone, Playlist Plus automatically locates and indexes the content on the device and then enables enhanced command and control functions in the audio head unit. Powered by proprietary metadata, including Gracenote's genre system of more than 1,700 microgenres and classifications such as artist type, era and origin, PlaylistPlus then provides a safe and easy way to find any artist, album or song and create instant and intelligent playlists of desired music. For instance, if the driver hears a song they like, they can simply use the "More Like This" feature and Gracenote will locate all of the similar music in a driver’s library and automatically start playing it.
Playlist Plus works seamlessly with MediaVOCS, and takes the experience one step further by offering the ultimate in voice control and safety. By simply saying "80's New Wave," drivers can instantly and automatically start listening to that playlist of their favorite songs from yesteryear. Or, if they would like to hear a song similar to what is currently playing, saying "More Like This" cues up all of the similar music in their library - without taking their eyes off road or their hands off wheel.
"PEIKER acustic is a pioneer in technology for the automotive industry and we are pleased to be a part of another groundbreaking solution from the company," said Jim Hollingsworth, Gracenote senior vice president of sales and marketing. "Using Gracenote's products to combine automatic one-touch playlisting with voice recognition allows drivers to have the ultimate in-car entertainment experience."
"Gracenote knows music – period," said Reinhard Kromer-von Baerle, senior executive vice president at PEIKER acustic. "Using their technology coupled with our multimedia and automotive electronics expertise, together we can deliver an unbelievable audio experience straight from the drivers own music collection."
The new in-car command and control solution from Gracenote and PEIKER acustic will be integrated directly into PEIKER's hands-free mobile phone car kits and offered as a total audio and communications solution for the driver.
About Gracenote
Gracenote is a global leader in embedded technology, enriched content, and data services for digital entertainment solutions within the Internet, consumer electronics, mobile, and automotive markets. Formerly known as CDDB®, Gracenote delivers a substantially improved consumer experience in digital media devices and applications, plus media monitoring and other data services to the recording industry, making it an integral part of the digital media economy. Gracenote powers leading services including Apple iTunes, Yahoo! Music Jukebox, Winamp; home and automotive products from Alpine, Panasonic, Philips and Sony; and mobile music applications from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, KDDI (Japan), KTF (Korea), Musiwave (Europe), and others. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, Gracenote has offices in New York, Tokyo, Berlin and Seoul. For more information about Gracenote, please refer to www.gracenote.com/corporate/.
About PEIKER acustic
Headquartered near Frankfurt, Germany and in Irving, Texas, PEIKER acustic (www.peiker.com), is one of the world's leading suppliers of a wide range of mobile communication accessories, including microphones, cellular hands-free car kits and telematic solutions. With technology advancing every day, PEIKER acustic has the capability to implement new technology and extend it even further with complete in-house design, manufacturing and assembly to produce consumer-ready products, meeting critical time-to-market deliveries. With 60 years of experience, PEIKER acustic's proven know-how and firm commitment to excellence permit PEIKER to be an ideal partner for product development, manufacturing and marketing/sales.
Gracenote and CDDB are registered trademarks of Gracenote, Inc. Playlist Plus and MediaVOCS are trademarks of Gracenote, Inc.
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Media Contact:
Veronica Skelton
Concept Communications for Gracenote
415.342.3435
veronica@conceptpr.net
