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Audio Panels are not the Rodney Dangerfield of the avionics stack any longer

@Mark, have you considered supporting Bluetooth headsets in your audio panels? This would help in many situations, especially in business aviation.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

Hi Ultranomad, sure have! But the latency of Bluetooth causes an unacceptable amount of echoing. The delay from inout audio and output audio is around 50mS.

The ear can detect 15 mS, so it wasn’t even close.

Lightspeed makes a wireless headset that got around this delay using RF. It is called the tango and it is truly wireless using a dongle and the mic/hp Jack’s.

Hope this helps.

Mark Scheuer
PS Engineering

PS Engineering, Inc.
KTYS Knoxville, TN

Dear Zuutroy, we do not make a slide in replacement for the KMA20 because it does not have a built in intercom. Therefore, there aren’t any pins available for that harness.

To make just a KMA20 plug n play really would not buy you anything except better switches.

There are so many benefits of having the intercom built into the audio panel that to build one without one would not make sense for us.

Thank you for asking.

Mark Scheuer
PS Engineering, Inc.

PS Engineering, Inc.
KTYS Knoxville, TN

Dear Bathamn, intercom sales are now just a tiny fraction of our business which leads me to believe that any new intercom would have trouble providing the necessary ROI, especially with cost of certification.

We do have the PMA4000 audio panel which sells for about $900 that has a 4-place IntelliVox(R) intercom however.

It’s mounts just like an intercom too!

Hope this helps.

Mark Scheuer
PS Engineering

PS Engineering, Inc.
KTYS Knoxville, TN

@Mark wrote:

But the latency of Bluetooth causes an unacceptable amount of echoing. The delay from inout audio and output audio is around 50mS.

The ear can detect 15 mS, so it wasn’t even close.

Yes, for the pilots that would probably be unpleasant indeed, but for the passengers in the back, or for the apron mechanics it would probably be fine. It may also be useful for some 4-/6-seaters that only have the front seats wired for headsets.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

Just to be clear, when the passengers would speak, they would hear their voice delayed (intercom sidetone) which sounds like echoing. In my opinion, this would be so annoying it would render their intercom useless. I’m sure there would be some people that would be OK but in my opinion the intercom would get a bad reputation fast, and that isn’t something I would want my company to be associated with.

If the passengers only want to hear, it would work just fine.

There are other technologies that can be used but they pose their own unique challenges.

Mark

PS Engineering, Inc.
KTYS Knoxville, TN
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