Bang & Olufsen confirms dates for AirPlay 2 on 11 B&O wireless speakers

Prepare for iOS mobile multi-room on your swanked up home audio network

B&O, fighting fit with AirPlay 2
Duncan Bell
By Duncan Bell
published

Hot on the heels of the news that high-end audio newcomer Apple is to introduce something called "AirPlay 2" to its iOS devices and Homepod speaker, Bang & Olufsen has confirmed AirPlay 2 will also be coming to 11 of its lovingly hand-tooled, luxe audio devices. That's across both the core B&O BeoSound range and the more affordable, urban-chic B&O Play line. 

Sonos is also lining up AirPlay 2 for its speakers including the Sonos One, which contains Amazon's Alexa AI. No dates have been set yet beyond "this year", but we'd expect it to be in line with B&O's dates. There are no exact dates for the Danish brand's rollout either, but we do know that upgrades will come over the course of August and September, with different devices updating at different points within that 2-month window.

The B&O Play A9 is one of the speakers getting the AirPlay 2 upgrade

AirPlay 2 lets Apple mobile users control one or many (multi-room) compatible speakers via iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. Windows and Apple laptop owners can already do this via the original AirPlay but that has only ever been able to control one speaker at a time on mobile devices.

“AirPlay 2 is a seamless way to enjoy music from your favourite Apple device and is a natural extension of how people live with music," crowed B&O's Petros Belimpasakis, Director and Head of Sound Category and Platform. "We are proud to be among the first companies to bring forward the experience of multiroom control in your Apple device and to deliver on the promise that our multiroom speakers connect with all streaming technologies.”

The AirPlay 2-compatible speakers will also work with Apple's HomePod, allowing Siri voice control of music on your B&O speakers, so long as the 'Pod is within listening distance.

The speakers to get the AirPlay 2 upgrade are as follows 

• Beoplay M3

• Beoplay M5

• Beoplay A6

• Beoplay A9 mk2

• BeoSound 1

• BeoSound 2

• BeoSound 35

• BeoSound Essence mk2

• BeoSound Core

• BeoSound Shape (via BeoSound Core)

• BeoVision Eclipse (audio only)

Apple's high-street- and gym-dominating Beats by Dre subsidiary has just unveiled a red-accented Decade Collection of its classic headphones that many attendees will no doubt be rocking at WWDC. 

Beats by Dre's Decade Collection of red-toned headphones

There's no word so far from the brand on a new version, red or otherwise, of its Pill speaker line, which has not had an update for almost 2 years. That hasn't stopped tipster Gene Munster from proclaiming that WWDC will see the launch of a new Beats speaker with Siri integration.

Gene, when working at Piper Jaffray, once spent years saying that Apple was just about to launch a television, but he has also been known to make correct predictions about the brand. 

With HomePod pitched at the higher end of the market, using Wi-Fi for connectivity and taking on Sonos, it would make sense for Beats to release a Siri-containing, music-orientated Bluetooth speaker to go up against the likes of UE's Megablast, which has Amazon Alexa integration, and Sony's LS-50, which incorporates Google Home.

The excellent Beats Studio3 Wireless had Siri integration via a push button, so a Siri Pill would also be a logical follow-up to that. It must be said that Beats has always been primarily a headphones brand, so a Siri Pill is not yet an inevitability by any means.

Beats by Dre main men Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre, seeing red

In other Beats by Dre news, the brand definitely has some new headphones. 

Released to celebrate 10 years of the brand that Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine built, the new Decade Collection will include scarlet-hued editions of its Beats Studio3 Wireless over-ear headphones, Beats Solo3 Wireless on-ears, BeatsX in-ears, Powerbeats3 Wireless gym headphones urBeats3 wired earphones. Red has long been a key colour for Beats by Dre.

The Studio3 Wireless also "features a special debossed earcup and comes with a custom linen case."

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Audio
Duncan Bell
Duncan Bell

Duncan is the former lifestyle editor of T3 and has been writing about tech for almost 15 years. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. His current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years. 

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."


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