The live broadcast and short video fire make sound cards a new track in the industry
Our reporter Cui Shuang
On October 15th, the third-party data analysis agency iiMedia Consulting released the "2020-2021 China Short Video/Live Sound Card Equipment Application Development White Paper" (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper"). The "White Paper" shows that the short video live broadcast industry is fast Under the background of development, the short video/live sound card industry has become a new track and entered a period of rapid growth.
The reporter learned that through continuous iteration of technology, the sound card has been gradually upgraded from the past sound signal conversion output device to an intelligent hardware device that can provide sound quality fidelity, sound optimization and many other functions.
In the PC (computer) market, traditional sound cards are relatively simple in application scenarios, and have higher requirements for PC configuration resources in terms of CPU configuration, power supply, and audio data transmission.
With the depth of the mobile scene, mobile phone sound cards have gradually gained industry recognition in live broadcast and short video scene applications. The hardware development of sound cards has begun to focus on short video/live industry applications. Short video/live sound cards have independent DSP (digital signal processing) ) A series of configurations covering the PC side such as chip and independent button operation, and the operation mode is more convenient.
It is estimated that by the end of this year, China’s short video/live sound card market will reach 1.89 billion yuan, and the short video/live sound card market will rapidly expand, quickly forming a blue ocean of competition. With the continuous deployment of short video/live sound card industry brands, the mid-to-low-end market The product ecology has been initially improved.
IiMedia Consulting analysts said that the penetration rate of short video/live sound card equipment will continue to increase. It is estimated that by 2025, the industry market will exceed 10 billion yuan.
Domestic sound cards have achieved "civilization of professional equipment"
Specifically, the sound card is a key component that converts sound into digital signals.
When the audio signal from the outside world enters the computer, it must first be amplified by the preamplifier in the sound card, and then handed over to the program-controlled amplifier for further signal amplitude control, and then passed to the anti-mixing filter to filter out which may cause aliasing And the frequency of the noise, and finally sent to the analog-to-digital converter to convert the analog signal into a digital signal, that is, digital sound data.
In this process, the DSP chip plays a very important role.
It is this small chip that manages all sound input and output and digital interface operations in the multimedia computer.
At the same time, the DSP chip can also compress the sound data and store the compressed data on the computer disk.
When the computer wants to output sound to the outside, it will first read the digital sound data to be output from the disk, and then send it to the DSP chip. After decoding and digital-to-analog conversion, it becomes an analog signal, which is then smoothed and filtered by a reconstruction filter. The power amplifier outputs to the speakers.
"In foreign countries, the sound card is a relatively professional equipment, mainly used to process audio signals and provide multi-platform, diverse audio interfaces, so that different devices can be connected to the audio interface for sound processing." Webcast equipment R & D and manufacturing company Senran Company Zhou Zhiqiang, general manager of the brand said, “Foreign sound cards rely more on professional sound effects plug-ins on the computer side, and the sound effects must be processed on the computer side. However, in China, an independent sound effect processor has been integrated into the sound card, which can more directly perform sound effect processing. Said it is to civilianize professional things."
The "White Paper" shows that the current short video/live sound card has a wide range of applications. In addition to being commonly used in live broadcast and short video production, short video/live sound cards can also be used for karaoke, video dubbing, online education, audiobook recording, etc. .
Its functions mainly include a variety of scene sound effects, special interactive special effects and voice change, etc., and can be connected with external accompaniment and microphone.
At the same time, the short video/live sound card is also powered by a lithium battery, which has a strong power storage capacity, which is convenient for outdoor and portable use.
The popularization of webcast and short video production has continuously enriched sound card products and lowered the threshold for use.
"It is precisely because the development of new business formats has generated huge new demands that hardware devices such as sound cards have begun to be segmented due to usage scenarios, which in turn promotes professional equipment to reach the public faster." iiMedia Consulting CEO Zhang Yi said.
Industry demand drives the sound card market to continue to boom
The reporter learned that the current application groups of short video/live sound card equipment mainly include four categories: guilds/MCN (Internet celebrity economic operations) institutions, professional anchors, small and medium businesses, and grassroots users.
Zhou Zhiqiang said that from the perspective of the demand for live broadcast and short video, whether it is short video or live broadcast, it is necessary to modify and render the tone; while the talent show during live broadcast has higher requirements for pitch; in addition, whether it is indoor or outdoor, the environment Noise will bring some interference, and noise cancellation and anti-noise functions have become rigid requirements.
Currently, short video/live sound cards have reached a high penetration rate among professional anchors, guilds, and MCN organizations.
At the same time, as webcasting began to develop towards the civilian population, more and more ordinary users began to become content producers.
IiMedia Consulting analysts believe that as the media value of short videos and live broadcasts is further highlighted, the subsequent operation needs of small and medium-sized merchant groups in short video/live broadcasts will also be further improved, and short video/live sound card equipment will become important for their professional operations. Technical guarantee, it is expected that the penetration rate and demand of small and medium business groups will show a rapid growth trend.
"This is a brand new track." Zhou Zhiqiang said.
In Zhang Yi's view, as an emerging field, the short video/live broadcast sound card market will continue to be popular in the future and accelerate the "pan-live broadcast".
In the context of the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, the level of intelligence of short video/live sound card equipment will be further improved, including the optimization of sound effects and sound quality fidelity. The short video/live sound card industry will continue to combine the individual needs of users. Further improve the industrial chain and achieve standardized development.
The competition of technical strength may become the main tone of the future
It is understood that in the initial stage of development, the short video/live sound card market has experienced long-term homogenization competition.
After the development trend has stabilized, quality brands have gradually emerged in the market.
The industry has gradually reached a consensus: sound card equipment depends on the product's accumulation of underlying chips and core algorithms in terms of sound effect conversion and sound quality fidelity. The competition of technical strength may become the main tone of the market in the future.
"In our research, we found that the chips and related technologies that support sound cards may become a very important link in future competition." Zhang Yi said that in the field of sound cards, if there are stronger technologies in algorithm technology, noise reduction, etc. Reserve, there will be better market opportunities.
In this regard, Zhou Zhiqiang agreed that for sound card equipment companies, having independent core technology is the key to winning the market in the future.
He said that most of the work in sound card chip development is to reduce power consumption and improve the quality of sound effects.
"Reducing power consumption is through the development of a new chip integration process, and to make the sound quality more perfect, you need to work hard on the algorithm." Zhou Zhiqiang for example, for example, integrating an effector into the algorithm can make The sound is more delicate and more textured; another solution is to connect mobile phones and microphones to peripheral hardware through different interfaces and connection technologies, such as wired interfaces, wireless interfaces, USB shield technology, Bluetooth technology, etc., and then through compatible The adapted software reduces consumption and improves quality.
The reporter learned that with the further integration of the short video/live sound card industry, product iteration has shifted from the R&D side to the demand side.
IiMedia Consulting analysts believe that in the future, short video/live sound card products will launch a new round of competition around user needs, and continue to upgrade in terms of purchase cost, ease of use, and power consumption optimization. Products with strong battery life and high cost performance will be vulnerable Market recognition and user favor.
Zhou Zhiqiang believes that the future short video/live sound card equipment will focus more on the individual needs of users, and innovation and breakthroughs need to be achieved at the product development end.
To this end, on the one hand, it is necessary to continue to cultivate in the sound card chip technology to accumulate technical advantages; on the other hand, it is necessary to optimize the product form design and software and hardware adaptation technology according to the hardware configuration and user needs to provide users with better Live broadcast solutions and hardware and software equipment.