Roku Possibly Developing A Smart Speaker

Roku makes some of the best streaming media devices on the market right now. Lately, there have been reports that the company is thinking about jumping on the smart speaker bandwagon. It was recently been discovered that the company acquired an audio startup in September and that acquisition seems like a big indication that Roku wants to get a piece of this expanding pie as well.

Smart speakers have really taken off over the past year or so. Companies like Amazon and Google are trying to capture a big chunk of the market. Even Apple has thrown its hat in the ring.

A recent regulatory filing by Roku has been discovered which reveals that it quietly acquired Dynastrom, a Danish audio startup, in September for $3.5 million. The filing doesn’t mention Dynastorm by name but does mention a privately held tech startup that’s based in Denmark.

Variety did some digging and found that many Dynastrom employees, including its CEO and CTO, joined Roku back in September. The filing does mention that Roku made this acquisition to “enhance the company’s player product offering.”

Dynastorm makes software that can be integrated into a speaker hardware to stream music over Wi-Fi. It has previously been reported that Roku is working on far-field voice technology, which is something that you find on devices like the Amazon Echo.

All of this circumstantial evidence points to the possibility that Roku has started working on a smart speaker. Just what it will be capable of remains to be seen. Roku has not yet confirmed or denied these reports.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: roku