Headset Tech at E3
June 2015 – Gaming audio was a big part of the E3 expo this year. Besides the main players showing custom game branded headsets, Astro Gaming/SkullCandy was showing a new professional level wireless gaming headset, and two new product major product lines from GioTeck showing both an mono earpiece style device and a new over the ear headset families.
Astro Gaming was showing their new A50 wireless headset. This pro-level unit operates in the 5.8GHz band for clear communication. As a headset it features low latency and, high noise isolation with the ear cups and a retractable/flipup microphone. The headset is available in editions to work with Xbox 360, Xbox one, PS3, PS4 and PC. The full over the ear design is very lightweight and the ear cups are designed for long game play (e.g. tournament scale) without fatigue. When not on your head, the ear cups can be rotated so they lie flat when resting around your neck.
On the sound side, the headsets support Dolby Digital 7.1 audio that provides single plane surround. They also tuned the devices with their own equalization called MixAmp that helps clarify game content such as gunshots, footsteps and talk from both the game audio tracks and communication through the microphones. The units are charged via USB and are targeted for 8+hrs of gameplay per charge, but can also be used while connected to a charger. The units are available in three color options: black, white and dark green.
On the deep tech side, at the demo suite, they did not have information on which channels of the 5.8Ghz band were being used or if the headset had channel conflict and noise bleed from 801.11n and 802.11ac (MIMO) class wifi routers that had data traffic in the 5.8GHz space also. They also were unable to answer how many wireless headsets you can have running in the same room at the same time and keep the content and conversations separate, but as Astro has a long history of large venue tournament use for their products, it is presumably a lot. Typically the 5.8Ghz supporting chipsets are using the latest 256 QAM so you typically have a physical person and console setup limit before you run into a headset limit. The headsets are currently available from Amazon and other retailers.
GioTeck LP1 Chat Headset
GioTeck was showing a new mono sound chat headset called the LP-01 that works for Playstation4 and PC/mobile devices. The Bluetooth device is styled in the fashion of traditional PC/mobile headsets with a color option and left/right ear interchangeability that more typical of gaming industry. It is a very voice and chat optimized device that can greatly enhance team based game play, but also supports high quality single ear sound and has a fair amount of noise-isolation. The ear piece “chat headset” will be released in Q3 2015.
GioTeck Fl-300 Wireless Bluetooth Gaming Headset
On the over the ear stereo headset side they were showing the new FL-300 and FL-400 headsets. The FL-300 is a wireless unit that supports all platforms (PC, Xbox, PS, and mobile) and the FL-400 is designed with a Bluetooth interface for Playstation, PC and mobile. For console gaming use, the voice chat interface requires that the FL-300 uses and included cable to connect to the Xbox One and PS4, and on the Fl-400 there is an RF dongle included for the PS4. Both of these families have a light multicolor over the headband that allows the earcups to be detached and used as a tabletop “external” speaker with mobile devices and PC. When detached from the headband the chat function is not supported. Both families also support retractable microphone, LED indicators and on-ear controls. The units are USB chargeable, but as the devices are in the pre-release stage, they did not specify the final “active use” time per charge. These headsets are also targeted for release in Q3 2015.
The focus of these two vendors and the units shown (Astro and GioTech) are sound quality and long session wear-ability for the user. They are targeting the next generation of console use as a media platform with more than just gaming content, but with an emphasis on supporting the unique aspects of the gaming applications. A number of the other headset vendors are still targeting point optimized (e.g. RPG or FPS or racing optimized) headphones, which fit the use model of the prior generation consoles but not the new generation where music, streaming video, and TV/movie content support is integrated into the platforms.
