I see only the USB dongle is added for a + version?
I guess +$10 pricepoint compared to original.
Is it a generic bluetooth transmitter? or only works with this powerconf+?
PS: I like the Disclaimer 
[Upcoming Release] Anker PowerConf+
1 Like
I believe this dongle will only work with PowerConf+, unless Anker makes firmware updates to make it compatible with PowerConf (Original) and PowerConf S3.
@poppo.wang can you please help confirm (though it may be a it too early)
1 Like
Hmmmm not sure because on amazon the list price of the other conference seems to have gone up in price and is just listed as on sale. I’ll guess $150
1 Like
Not sure if it is just me… But i am seeing list price for some of Soundcore products going up too… Start of school season?
3 Likes
I don’t quite understand why it needs a bluetooth dongle, since most modern computers have built in bluetooth anyway. Is this just a USB to bluetooth adapter as @Ice asked, or is something else going on here? And if it is bluetooth in general, than presumably it could be used with anything that supports bluetooth.
1 Like
Bluetooth dongle gives device freedom to PowerConf to connect beyond the Laptops… Example - the PowerConf can now be connected directly to Cisco phones on USB port. (Earlier too i could do it… But is a pain with Bluetooth pairing, and connecting the BT connection each time on the Cisco IP PHONE)
Most popular business headset brands such as Poly (previously called Plantronics), Jabra, Cisco etc have Bluetooth headsets with Dedicated dongle. This makes them ready for use without worrying about BT pairing headache / frustration.
Anker, by adding a dongle for connection is doing a great service by reducing frustration for users with BT pairing. Gives plug and play support with the dongle.
I missed out on it by buying the PowerConf early. Now feel I should have waited… Well, I used it and its been my best device yet for work from home.
Additionally, Anker / Soundcore should do a guided setup for speakers / Headsets via the app,( as a feature request) mentioned here
1 Like
Version 3 is usually the one to wait for. Version 1 is what the designer thinks is best. Version 2 is what the owners feedback of owners who thought Version 1 is good. Version 3 is feedback from everyone including those who waited for feedback from Version 1.
Powerconf is now approaching Version 3.
I’d always take a Version 1 for free
1 Like
I’m not quite sure I see why you would want to hook it up to an IP phone - normally those have better speakers / mic than something like this (in my experience). But I suppose a cool feature to add for those who have it, maybe that covers a much bigger group than I think.
I think of this product as for people doing conference calls without an office grade IP phone accessible. The new work from home crowd. But hopefully that market draws some buyers as well.
That was an example of how dongle would be used. Regular IP phones have speakers but those are trash quality for voice calls, that is why there are still Polycom Spider conference phones and dedicated conference stations by Cisco.
PowerConf with dongle would end up being used on laptops / tablets
Only wanted to bring out that Dongle makes life easier!
2 Likes
Definitely think it’s interesting how quickly they came out with this since the pandemic started and more people started working from home
2 Likes
I’ve worked from home for about 20 years.
There’s two different sound issues.
When you are speaking, you do not want anything other than the sound of voice being picked up. So a “dad, are you still working?” voice away is not a good thing. That requires intelligence in the microphone system. Most who WFH have developed a trigger finger on the mute/unmute/mute.
When you are listening, you do not want anything other than sound from the other person coming to your ears. So Noise Isolation, Noise Cancellation. Usually when working to a deadline.
The trick Soundcore has to do to truly win in work-from-home is marry and solve both these problems in one product. Currently they have done partially each, separately.
Soundcore has yet to make a speakerphone with ANC, and yet to make ANC headphones with an intelligent voice selection. There is no a priori reason why these cannot be merged. ANC has a physics reason for over-ear, but those over-ear know exactly where your voice is, halfway between the cams, and can filter out all sound than that equidistant mid-ear source.
1 Like
I have kids and work from home. I’ve seen both issues. A fix would be impressive and valuable. Hard to do though.
2 Likes
So humans do this all the time, we focus on one particular sound from a particular direction, because we have stereo hearing we can filter out side from everything but one direction.
So technology should be able to do the same, make it filter out all incoming sound other than in a particular direction. If you have 2 mics you can only filter left/right, but if you had 3+ mics you can filter everything but from 1 direction. So you can make headphones which filter out all sound they pick up apart from forwards and midpoint, i.e. where you mouth is.
Good cancelling of external sound is more complex as it’s got to make anti-noise, that’s just a cost issue of the speed of the processor.
In the particular case of a Powerconf, I’d have thought Soundcore could make a software revision, or include in hardware next iteration, an option to filter out all sound bar from one direction, you’d set the direction in the app, then the Powerconf would then only pick up and transmit your voice and not the “dad will come and play with me” sound to the side of your voice.
2 Likes
This will need more than just hardware or software… This requires voice analysis and Anker / Soundcore will need to have cloud AI to remove these unrelated noise… Similar to what BabbleLabs does / did, which has developed noise-removal and speech-enhancement technology (Cisco acquired it recently)
Building this into PowerConf is a big challenge, without help from cloud services engine.
2 Likes
Doesn’t it already kind of do this with noise reduction and voice enhancement? Surely it wouldn’t be too difficult to block out one direction?
1 Like
Noise Reduction is different from preferential noise removal… PowerConf will need to know which voice is preferred versus which it needs to completely negate…
If it can achieve this without cloud… That would be a sought-after feature, and paves way for possible acquisition / IP by other giants like Poly, Jabra…
1 Like
It is always interesting to see which tasks that are very simple for humans are hard for computers, and vice versa. Things like identifying a picture of an animal, or ignoring irrelevant sounds that are trivial for almost any person. Often things that require some form of ‘understanding’ that is hard to spell out precisely.
1 Like
Not true. If you eliminate all sound out of phase, you do not analyse for voice you simply remove sound where the signal is out of phase as detected by two+ microphones. It is a timing elimination, not a frequency elimination. Filtering for other than voice is good for when outdoors to filter wind sound and sound which comes from all directions like when driving. Also if you filter for direction not sound it filters human voices other than one’s own (those in the selected direction).
1 Like
This is what PowerConf is doing effectively… But if the voice is coming from same direction, like 2 persons talking in same direction , it will be harder to differentiate. Believe this is the reason why the modes have been defined - Single Mode and Multi-Person mode.
3 Likes