By combining the power of voice-over-RF technology and cloud-based speech recognition, voice-enabled remotes free consumers from the line-of-sight, push-button limitations of legacy infrared (IR)-based controls. Silicon Labs’ new voice codec technology and complete reference design simplify the process of designing truly smart remotes.

Silicon Labs’ new ZigBee Remote Control (ZRC) reference design provides all of the hardware and software needed to develop full-featured, voice-enabled remote controls. The reference design is based on Silicon Labs’ EM34x wireless SoCs and ZRC 2.0 Golden Unit-certified software stack, which provides an industry-standard way to implement interoperable, low-power RF remote controls.

The reference design includes complete RF layout and design files, an acceleration sensor for backlight control, a buzzer for “find me” capabilities, support for IR control, a digital microphone and the ability to transmit voice commands over RF.

Silicon Labs engineered the reference design to support voice control using either an external hardware codec or the company’s software codec technology. The hardware codec reduces the processing load on the EM34x SoC while the software codec trades off increased CPU utilization for the lowest possible bill of materials (BOM) cost. Both design options meet the stringent voice quality requirements of leading cloud-based speech recognition software providers.

“As the leading supplier of ZigBee silicon and software solutions for the IoT, Silicon Labs has helped thousands of wireless developers simplify and accelerate their RF designs,” said Daniel Cooley, vice president of marketing for Silicon Labs’ IoT products. “We’re excited by the growing trend of voice control in the connected home, and we have developed a comprehensive reference design solution that reduces the cost and complexity of creating voice-enabled ZigBee remote controls for a wide range of connected home products.”

Two new Silicon Labs development kits are available for the voice-enabled reference design, EM34X-VREVK Voice Remote Evaluation Kit and EM34X-VRDK Voice Remote Development Kit

Silicon Labs’ EM34x wireless SoCs at the heart of the reference design handle all remote control functions. The EM34x SoCs deliver unmatched performance, low power and code density in a single-chip design based on the industry’s best-selling ZigBee mesh networking SoC architecture.

The SoCs combine a 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 transceiver with an ARM Cortex-M3 processor, flash memory, RAM and peripherals. The transceiver’s efficient architecture delivers a link budget of 110 dB, providing a robust link for ZRC applications without an external power amplifier (PA) or low-noise amplifier (LNA). Integrated receive channel filtering and multi-level retries support co-existence with other 2.4 GHz standards such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.