Since its debut in 2019, Amazon’s Echo Studio targeted users who wanted superior audio quality from their Alexa-based smart speaker. The latest Echo Studio adds another less expected differentiator: an integrated camera.
The Echo Studio with Home Camera, released alongside many other Alexa devices today, doesn’t have many audio upgrades over the standard Echo Studio. Each speaker has a 3.75-inch high-excursion woofer and three full-range drivers. Both support Dolby Atmos and Amazon’s proprietary algorithm for adding a surround sound effect to stereo audio. According to the devices’ product pages, the speakers have lossless HD audio, advanced room adaptation, and features to combat noise distortion. Amazon announced Advanced Room Adaptation today, saying the feature “continuously tunes sound to your space, automatically adapting to the room’s acoustics.”
Both speakers have four-microphone arrays and the same AZ3 Pro processor that Amazon introduced a year ago. The processor has an AI accelerator to use Amazon’s Alexa+ generative AI chatbot.
The devices also have the same dimensions, although the new Echo Studio With Home Camera fits a 13MP camera.
The speaker can use the camera to see where you are and adjust the audio volume “so your music or audiobook stays the same volume as you move.”
Beyond the audio capabilities, Amazon sees people using the speaker as a smart camera, allowing them to remotely monitor a room in the house to see, for example, “how the dog is doing or make sure you don’t leave the lights on.”
“Alexa can also see and understand what’s in front of the camera and help you in real time. Pull out a board game box and ask Alexa+ to explain the rules or hold up a box of cereal, and Alexa can recognize it and help you reorder more flavors,” Amazon’s announcement says.
