Making a 5.1 home-theater-like system with nRF54l15 DK

[fbox]

Hi there,

I would like to get information regarding the possibility of implementing 5.1 isochronous audio streams on the nRF5340 Audio DK development kit. According to this link, it seems that only a maximum of 2 stereo streams are supported, which would allow a 4.0 configuration (or possibly 4.2 or 5.1 if the FrontLeft and FrontRight channels are managed by the source before the signal is sent to the board) but does not seems to be optimized for this use-case as I think the signal for the 5 or 6 channels should be sent in the same CIS.

So my question is: is it possible to implement a home-theater-like 5.1 configuration with isochronous audio streams on the nRF5340 Audio DK? (I think I already know the answer but I prefer asking).

Furthermore, since the nRF54L15 Development Kit was recently released and offers more processing power, would this new chip allow for a 5.1 configuration, or is it still limited? I've also seen that there is a nRF54H20 chip that is (already?) been launched and looks more powerfull than the 54L15. Will there be a dev kit for this chip ? If yes, will this chip be able to do the use-case I want to do ?

If any of these chips allow to use the BLE Audio specification in the use-case I want. Do you have chips (maybe more consuming ones) that could do it ?

I hope this question finds a response, I am pretty new to BLE so maybe I am missing something but I tried to look in the forum to find an answer and did not find it, I also tried the Ask AI feature but didn't get a suitable answer.

Thank you in advance for your help,

Fred

[dejans]

Hi,

You should consider the following regarding the use of nrf5340:
1. CPU usage - it is required around 33% of the nrf5340 CPU for encoding one channel stream of high quality (48 KHz, 96 Kbps). Having 3 channels might already be stressful for nrf5340 CPU. 
2. If I2S is input interface, it supports only 2 channels
3. Establishing 3 streams might be possible using broadcast nrf_auraconfig (as it does not stress CPU), but this would require testing and use of sniffer to check on-air timing, and you might need your own BIS receiver for handling receiving side.
With regard to audio support on nrf54l15 and nrf54h20 and applicability to your use case, please contact your regional sales manager.

Best regards,
Dejan

[fbox]

Hi Dejans,

Thank you for the quick answer. 

Unfortunately I am not sure it answers my question or maybe I didn't understand the answer. In my use-case I wont need any mic and wont use headsets.

It is going to be a source (computer, phone, soundbar, AV Receiver etc.) that will send a multi-channel audio signal to different sinks/receivers (nRF534 Audio Dev Kit/or other, Bluetooth speakers etc.). Each sink will play one channel of the audio signal that will be sent by the source. As for a Stereo signal, the signal played by each sink could be different so the Broadcast application of BLE Audio doesn't apply in my case. Ideally I would like to send a 5.1 audio signal to 6 different sinks that are going to be synchronized (the 6 channels sent being : Front left, Front right, Center, Surround left, Surround right and Subwoofer).

I wanted to know if my use-case could be answered with one of your dev kit boards using BLE Audio (no Wifi or proprietary protocol) and if there were a limitation in the number of channels that could be sent to the sinks (I would like 6 channel, but if only 4 are possible, I can try workarounds to fulfill my needs.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Fred

[dejans]

Hi Fred,

I have edited my previous reply. Please have a look at it again and let me know if you have any further questions.

Best regards,
Dejan

[fbox]

Thank you for your answer, it is clear for me.

Have a nice day