Google today announced a technology making it possible to wirelessly send audio to speakers. With "Google Cast for Audio" it's possible to directly send music of several services to speakers that support the technology.
The technology was announced by LG during a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), currently held in Las Vegas. LG presented Music Flow, one of the first speakers that supports the technology.
Cast for Audio is a variant to Google's Chromecast technology which makes it possible to send videos wirelessly to a TV. Many speakers currently use a Bluetooth connection to receive audio from connected devices. The smartphone or tablet has therefore to be connected to the speaker constantly and the audio quality is usually degraded due to the relative low bandwidth of Bluetooth.
Google Cast devices create a direct connection between the device and the source of the video or audio. A Chromecast playing Netflix content connects directly to the Netflix servers without the smartphone being active.
The audio service of Google will do the same with streaming audio services like TuneIn, Rdio, Pandora and Google Play Music. So far Spotify doesn't seem to be supported. According to Google also Sony, Denon and HEOS will soon introduce devices with Cast for Audio support and later this year more manufacturers should follow.
Google Cast for Audio will work with Android and iOS tablets and phones. Also Mac OSx, Windows and Chromebook devices are supported when the Chrome browser is used.
