Thank you for joining us.
Today we have an exciting announcement to share with you.
Our lives have changed dramatically in recent times.
Like many, I work from home and enjoy entertainment online.
We are using headphones more than ever, and they are essential for work, entertainment and traveling.
Increasingly, many people choose the convenience of truly wireless headphones to meet their daily needs as the form factor fits well with their lifestyle.
However, I feel that truly wireless headphones can improve in a number of areas including battery life, connectivity, noise canceling performance and sound quality.
Today I’m thrilled to introduce our new truly wireless headphones with industry leading noise cancellation, the WF-1000XM4.
These next generation headphones will meet the demands of both music listening and every day use, incorporating the latest cutting-edge technologies and our expertise in professional music creation and headphone development.
Firstly, let me talk about the new wireless chip, the “Integrated Processor V1”, specially developed for the WF-1000XM4.
This new custom-made “System on Chip” has much higher performance with less power consumption, with a newly developed, integrated noise canceling algorithm and high quality sound circuit.
Secondly, the headphones incorporate newly designed, 6mm driver units with a 20% increase in magnet volume in a tiny body, delivering improved sound performance especially in low frequencies.
You can enjoy clearer vocal, stunning rich bass, and an immersive sound field.
In addition, the WF-1000XM4 are truly wireless headphones to support High-Resolution Audio Wireless, with LDAC, our industry-adopted audio coding technology.
You can fully enjoy music through high resolution streaming services such as Amazon Music HD and TIDAL with their amazing sound quality.
Or when you listen to non-HD content, Sony’s unique technology, DSEE Extreme, upscales it closer to high resolution in real time for a more complete listening experience.
Let me show you an example of our real workmanship on this product.
The newly developed “Noise Isolation Earbud Tips” are made using a unique polyurethane foam material.
Soft and elastic, it maximizes the surface contact area between the earbud tip and the ear canal, eliminating gaps between them to reduce noise with more secure fit.
Furthermore, the headphones are perfect for enjoying “360 Realty Audio.”
The AI algorithm used to personalize the listening experience has been greatly improved to provide more accurate placement of each sound and also offer a better expression of sound field for a truly immersive music experience.
Let me now talk about some of the other wonderful technologies that make the WF-1000XM4 so versatile.
They fit your ears more comfortably and stably with a shape that matches your ear cavity and a new ergonomic surface design.
And the industry’s highest level of call quality is achieved with state-of-the-art voice pick-up technologies, such as multiple high performance microphones, beamforming technology and a bone conduction sensor.
Integrated Processor V1 enables a far longer battery life of up to 8 hours, with noise cancellation on, without charging.
And just 5 minutes of quick charge gives you up to an hour of playback.
Last but not least, our new packaging is plastic free, using our original environmentally-friendly material, which I believe is a world first.
The new WF-1000XM4 is jam-packed with powerful technology and demonstrates the expertise we have gained through working with professional musicians and creators over many years.
I am confident that the WF-1000XM4 is a perfect tool to enrich your lifestyle thanks to its premium sound quality, industry leading noise cancellation and seamless usability.
Now we will hear from our genius engineers to share some stories from the product development cycle.
Please feel their passion for this advanced product.
Thank you very much.
We wanted to deliver the best sound anytime, anywhere. With that goal in mind, we have improved sound quality and noise canceling performance because we believe they are the most important functions for the best audio experience.
High-quality sound reproduction technology, which is the base for our great sound, has been improved, and it has become possible to reproduce sound with high resolution and precision even in wireless connection.
In order to fully enjoy this great sound, a quiet environment is required where no outside noise exists. This model achieves the industry leading noise canceling performance to block noise, which helps you enjoy listening to music no matter the environment.
Now, let me talk about the evolution of noise canceling.
First of all, there are two ways to reduce the influence of external noise. Active noise canceling, which is the way we cancel a noise with inverted sound waves, and the sound insulation with the headphones themselves.
This model has enhanced active noise canceling performance due to the improved driver unit and processor. Additionally, the high frequency sound has been improved thanks to the sound insulation of the new earpieces.
With those approaches, the noise canceling performance has been established in all frequency bands. You can particularly feel its effect when in a noisy environments - whether that be on a train, in the office, or at home.
To give you a little more technical explanation, the key to the noise canceling function is how accurately it can create a cancel wave against an external noise.
The WF-1000XM4 offers enhanced noise canceling performance by maintaining the size of driver unit even in a smaller form factor, and extending the reproduction of low-frequency.
In addition, the newly developed processor features improved processing speed. It is now possible to generate a cancel wave without any delay, even for a high-frequency noise whose wave changes rapidly at times.
Furthermore, for the high-frequency noise that cannot be eliminated by active noise canceling, we thought it would be effective to improve the sound insulation of the headphones themselves.
In order to pursue sound insulation and a comfortable fit, a huge amount of thought went into the newly developed noise isolation earpieces, such as their material and structure, and I went through many trials in production with mechanical members.
Polyurethane foam with high sound absorption blocks external noise by firmly adhering to the ear.
Next, I will discuss the sound quality.
In terms of hardware, the driver unit contributes to the improvements in sound quality, and despite the headphones' small diameter, it produces powerful sound by making its diaphragm softer with 20% increased magnet volume.
Moreover, the Digital-Analog converter with a new processor has a higher SN ratio to generate less signal distortion, creating high quality sound.
Next, in terms of software, we have adopted a mechanism that allows the information of music data to be played back without loss.
You can enjoy high resolution sound, as it is supported by LDAC, and even if it is a compressed sound source, DSEE Extreme upscales the music equivalent to high resolution.
DSEE Extreme uses neural network technology to analyze the music in real time and upscales while switching the optimum processing for vocals and each instrument.
You can enjoy better sound even if it has low bit rate sound sources like subscription music, distribution services and streaming videos.
I hope listening to music with the WF-1000XM4 anytime and anywhere will become a part of your life.
Due to the effects of COVID-19, headphones have become an even more important communication tool to support the work-from-home lifestyle.
In particular, wireless headphones are easy to carry around and are used under various noisy environments, whether that be outside, in the home or at the office.
Therefore, we understand there is a growing need and expectation for improved call performance and comfortable call quality under any circumstances.
However, it was difficult to improve call performance of the truly wireless headphones because they are smaller than the headband type.
Therefore, the WF-1000XM4 has introducing two important technologies; beamforming technology and bone conduction sensor.
Beamforming technology is a directional technology.
This model uses signal processing to give directivity to the microphones for calls, which makes it easier to pick up the sound coming from or around a user's mouth.
In other words, it picks up minimal sound from the user's environment.
On the other hand, the bone conduction sensor uses a vibration sensor that picks up vibrations from the user’s voice, and when the headphones are completely sealed, an ambient noise is difficult to transmit, so only your voice will be picked up.
Therefore, it is possible to extract the voice without being affected by ambient noise or wind.
By combining these approaches, we thought we could achieve higher noise reduction against various noises.
It was a difficult task to incorporate these two technologies into a small housing while ensuring strong performance.
In order to make beamforming function properly, the microphones should be placed at proper angles while customers are wearing headphones. We have been working through the adjustment of all the components inside the headphones and considering how we could make balanced positioning in such a small form factor.
As for the bone conduction sensor, it easily picks up minor vibrations of sound, which means it easily affects the structure of the headphones' housing.
Therefore, we focused on increasing the stability in the transmission of vibration, changing test condition, such as the sensor positions, while actually speaking, and examining their best placement.
We repeated a number of reviews and trials on the housing structure and finally combined those two technologies to drive performance.
We believe that we have achieved high call performance by condensing our powerful technologies into a very small package.
I hope you enjoy the WF-1000XM4, not only as noise canceling music listening devices, but as communication tools.