Toumaz Group, the pioneer of low cost, high efficiency wireless communication technologies, has made impressive developments across two of its three key markets, DAB radio and Connected Audio. Since its acquisition of Frontier Silicon in August 2012, the technology firm has clarified its strategy and is now delivering on it. A new wave of chips are due to enter the market in the coming months and support of Spotify’s leading music service as well as Imagination’s challenger FowAudio has been announced. Each of these has the capacity to materially bolster Toumaz’ top line and stem cash burn.
Much of the exciting developments are coming out of Frontier Silicon, the firm which Toumaz acquired in August 2012. With Frontier ex-CEO, Anthony Sethill, taking the helm of Toumaz shortly thereafter and Toumaz’s founder, Chris Toumazou, taking a back seat as an NED recently, it appears that the change of control is now entirely with the new CEO and we can see it is getting results, and fast.
Toumaz always could produce compelling solutions to real-world problems, but taking the concept and commercialising it was where it always failed. With pedigree such as Sethill as CEO I believe we will begin to see this company’s unique technology finally realise value for shareholders.
Frontier supports leading music streaming services
Devices enabled with Frontier Silicon’s new 3rd generation Venice 6.5 chip can now support Spotify’s leading music streaming service. Wireless speakers, internet radios and any other enabled audio device can connect with smart devices (e.g phones, tablets) to effortlessly stream and control music output.
FlowAudio, Imagination Technologies’ liscensable cloud-based music and radio service, is also supported by Frontier’s new Venice 6.5 chip. The service allows users to stream audio from the internet as well as their own content. It is a wholesale product and can therefore lead to a far wider and quicker spread of demand for devices which are enabled to support the service, such as Toumaz’s Venice 6.5 chip.
Jim Nicolas, VP marketing at Frontier Silicon said:
“The consumer audio market is set to be transformed by the combination of wireless speakers and new ways of delivering content. Frontier and Imagination are at the forefront of that”
The Venice 6.5 chip certainly appears likely to become a strong cash generator for the Toumaz Group. The financial benefits should start to be seen as the enabled devices hit to market over the coming months.
Launch of AUTODAB 2.0
AUTODAB 2.0 is a low cost solution to meet the added challenges of automotive digital radio listening. Traditional vehicular-based DAB/DAB+ solutions operate on a dual tuner system to counteract instances of radio signal loss. If one tuner loses signal, the second tuner can immediately step in with an alternative signal source, thus providing the listener with a seamless listening experience.
Frontier’s new chip can provide the same seamless service but with the use of only one DAB tuner, a significant cost advantage over other market offerings.
Business Development Manager Graham Johnson of Connects2, leading manufacturer of car audio accessories, said:
““AUTODAB 2.0 is impressive. To enable a single tuner radio to provide such an integrated automotive experience is a major feat of engineering”
The result: A meaningful technology advantage over Toumaz’s competitors and an added incentive for auto-producers to install digital tuners over analogue. Its development will catalyze market size growth and therefore increase Toumaz’s market share and dominance.
Roma, the world’s lowest latency multi-room wireless solution
Latency is audio-maker jargon for the sound delay between multiple speakers of a wireless connected system. A high latency can lead to a poor listening experience. Roma is Frontier’s solution to such a problem. The new chip offers the lowest latency wireless multi-room audio solution for a range of connected audio devices. Roma-enabled wireless speaker systems can now truly perform as effectively as wired speaker systems, with latency coming in at less than 50 microseconds, or 0.00005 seconds.
These technology developments from Frontier Silicon have the clout to maintain and strengthen Toumaz’s leading position in the fast-growing DAB Radio and Connected Audio markets. This should propel Toumaz and its rejuvenated product offering rapidly towards financial sustainability.
It’s certainly an exciting time to be a shareholder. We see a sound strategy built on growing markets and solid competitive advantages which has the potential to deliver significant profit growth going forward. We feel the market does not fully appreciate much of this, and thus, at these prices, Toumaz offers an attractive asymmetric risk-return profile.
All this and there is still blue-sky potential for the SensiumVitals wireless body monitoring solution. Guidance from the company suggested that we should see a second pilot in Europe/UK towards the end of the year, but for this to occur, certain EU regulatory requirements must be met surrounding the wireless platform used by the system. When this is announced the market can expect to see further progress for this prodigious product.
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