Finnish expertise can seen in Huawei’s top headphones – key features have been developed in Tampere

Huawei's largest audio technology research and development center outside of China is located in Finland. Trust and investment in Finnish expertise can be seen and heard in several important features of Huawei's latest devices, such as the top-level wireless FreeBuds Pro 2 headphones.

Huawei has invested heavily in research and product development work in Finland. The company's development centers are located in Helsinki and Tampere, the latter of which focuses on audio technology. The Tampere Wireless Headset Audio Laboratory is Huawei's largest audio technology research and product development center outside of China with more than 30 industry experts.

The effects of Finnish sound technology know-how can be seen concretely, for example, in several features of the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 headphones that arrived in stores in August.

"The FreeBuds Pro 2 headphones use speech processing algorithms designed in the sound laboratory of wireless headphones in Tampere. The background noise of varying environments and especially wind are challenging elements for earbuds, so algorithm solutions are important in enabling clear calls even in challenging environments," says Jyri Pakarinen, Huawei Finland's New Technology Manager (Audio).

Huawei's laboratory in Tampere has also developed separate automatic speech recognition preprocessing algorithms for FreeBuds Pro 2 headphones. Rather than guaranteeing the clarity of calls, these algorithms focus on ensuring that AI applications, such as voice assistants and speech-to-text applications, receive the user's speech in the best possible form.

In addition, the FreeBuds Pro 2 headphones benefit from an automatic fit-testing algorithm, which was also developed in Finland. The algorithm measures the sound inside the user's ear with the help of a microphone aimed at the ear canal and evaluates whether the right-sized silicone tip is installed in the headphones and whether the headphones are securely in place in the ears.

"Each of us has different sized and shaped ears, and the listening experience can be significantly improved with tiny changes to the position of the headphones or the size of the silicone tips. It is therefore valuable to get help in evaluating the fit, especially for users who are not used to it," says Pakarinen.

All in all, 450 people work in Huawei's research and product development work in Finland. Huawei is the most significant buyer of research work in Finland. For example, in 2019 Finnish research and product development units bought research work from various research institutes and universities in Finland and Europe for 11.6 million euros. In 2019, Huawei invested 65 million euros in research and product development centers in Finland.