Sign me up for home karaoke!

Those of you who know me, know that I have a keen interest in the ultra low power wireless market. I always have since the introduction of ZigBee way back when. I still recall the hubub on the tradeshow floor that opening day: what is ZigBee? Have you heard about ZigBee? Well, low-power wireless has come a long way since then, and ZigBee has plenty of company. But that's for another post...

What caught my eye today was an announcement out of Nordic Semiconductor about a new reference design kit that was developed by Nordic and AKM Semiconductor. The kit is a fast-track, two-microphone audio streaming solution that is well suited for consumer gaming and home karaoke. Well... we sing a LOT around my house, so this got me interested. (Look out Beatles Rock Band!)

Here's what we know, the nRFready Microphone reference design kit includes two microphone boards, a receiver board (with both USB and analog interfaces), design files, source code, and supporting documents. The board integrates a Nordic nRF2460 2.4GHz audio streamer IC, AKM's AK5700 16-bit mono ADC with microphone pre-amp and ALC (Automatic Loudness Control), a 3.5mm jack for the microphone, and a Microchip PIC16F684 Flash microcontroller. The receiver board integrates two Nordic nRF2460 audio streamer ICs, two AKM AK4430 24-bit stereo DACs, an AKM AK5374 24-bit stereo ADC, and a Microchip PIC16F684 Flash microcontroller.

Now, what we need is for one of you guys to build me a home karaoke machine, who is game?