October 1, 2020 • 11 mins
The Google Nest Audio smart speaker replaces the original 2016 Google Home. Nest Audio has louder sound, better bass and you can pair two of them for a stereo effect. Learn how Google uses proprietary software and data to make these speakers sound their best no matter where or how you listen to them.
Interview with Mark Spates, Google Nest Product ManagerSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Get full access to Rich on Tech at richontech.tv/subscribe
Interview with Mark Spates, Google Nest Product ManagerSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Get full access to Rich on Tech at richontech.tv/subscribe
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rich Demiro here, Rich On Tech here with Mark Spates,
product manager for Google Next. Mark, thanks so much for
being on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh Rich, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
All right, let's talk about your brand new product. You've
got the Nest Audio smart speaker. This is a ninety
nine dollars smart speaker that kind of replaces a speaker
that came out many years ago, the original Google Home.
So tell me about this new speaker. I've got one
right here, and it has a whole new look and
feel to it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, Rich, I think the first visual that you saw
is part of the advancements that we made. And so
when we launched the original Google Home, I think what
was really interesting where people were surprised by its sound
and they actually appreciated that for the value in the
sound that they got. And so when we thought about
the next generation of it, Nest Audio, there are a
(00:50):
few things that we want to prove. On one, the
sound quality itself, and for us, what we wanted to
make sure is that there's a theoristic that users felt
when they had this sound with Nest Audio. It should
be full balanced with the lows and the mids and
the highs. It should be very clear as well, that
the vocals really come through and there's no distortion and
(01:12):
it's natural. Really, what the users should feel is what
the artists created and what they wanted to come through.
And there's a few ways that we achieved this rich
One is the Nest Audio actually has a seventy five
milimeter Wolfer and a nineteen milimeter Twitter and this is
really important because that allows us to really get better
(01:34):
base and allows us to even be awesome with the
vocals at extremely high values. But I think the key part,
and I think the natural, like how Google solves problems,
was we went about the tuning in a very software
driven way, a very data driven way. And I'll tell
(01:56):
you what that means. First, the team actually creates it
with nes Mini, our own proprietary tuning software, and what
that allows us to do is we can simulate over
two thousand and five hundred possible listening positions for the device.
And why is that important. It's because people have very
different homes. They put these devices everywhere, and we want
(02:18):
to make sure that it sounds great no matter where
you put it. And the features that really come out
of this data driven approach are three things. One, it's
called base extension. What we're able to do is extend
the base even when the device is at lower values,
and so if you're listening to it on valume two
or three, you still don't lose that emotional feeling of
(02:40):
the base coming through. The next one is ambient IQ.
What that allows us to do is leverage the background noise.
Let's say the faucet is running or the dryer is running.
We can make sure that the assistant voice actually adjusts
so that you can hear it no matter where the
device is in the room. And last, and I actually
thinks important for Nest Audio is media EQ. What we're
(03:04):
able to do is actually a just the tuning of
nests Audio to the music you're listening to, be it
hip hop or jazz or classical or the podcast as well.
And so what you're really seeing is is Google really
starting to develop a really clear way that we believe
things should sound, and then the technology behind it to
(03:25):
actually achieve it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Now, because you have so many speakers in the lineup
at this point, everything from the Mini to the Max
to the different displays, and this of course new Nest Audio,
there's almost a reason to have one in every room.
And you can at these price points. So tell me
about the idea of building a whole house system. You've
got this stream transfer feature and also the stereo pair feature,
(03:50):
so explain how those sort of work in the realm
of a house.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Oh, this is this is my favorite part. You know,
if I think about the things that I've been using
the most since we've all been working from home, these
are the features. And so the thing about creating that
whole home audio experience is that first we want to
make sure all our devices work together. And they all
are using Cast, which is awesome, and so it can
(04:16):
work with your hub, your hub Max, I can even
work with your Crome cast devices that are connected to
your TV right, So it really gives a pretty broad
range of things that work together. But the real outcome
is fill your home with music. And first it's about grouping,
and so you can set up a group and I
do this all the time. I literally have a group
(04:37):
called home and it's like Yo playing music on home.
But then I think there are other features that are
about the context of what you're doing in that day.
And so let's just say it's a Saturday and you're
cleaning a house. Something like stream transfer is perfect, right,
because what you can do is you're cleaning up in
the kitchen as I do, then I actually start to
move to the bathroom and I can say, hey, move
(04:59):
the move the music to the bathroom. And then you
get down clean up the bathroom. You got to go,
you know, finish up, clean up the living room, and
say hey, move the music to the living room. And
that allows the.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Music to say you just say those that term to it.
And you sort of have to know what your speakers
are named. I'm assuming right.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, if you only have one speaker in our room,
you can you can just use the room. But it
also works if you say, hey, GI, move the room,
move the music to the living room speaker, which is
the name of the speaker. And so uh, this this, this,
this easiness of being able to just use it with
your voice is awesome. And if you have a Hub
Max or you have a hub, you can also just
(05:37):
do it with with touch you can go to the interface.
You actually can do the same thing using the interface
on a Hub or a Hub Max. Uh. The next
feature which we just recently introduced, which is multi room expansion.
This is the thought that sometimes you want to create
a group dynamically on the on the fly that you
haven't created before. And so the core things for this is,
(05:59):
like you know, all of us sometimes we get into it,
we get into the point where we're working out and
so like this is what I do. I'm like, Okay,
I want the sound to come through a little bit more,
and so let me put it on my Nest hub
in the kitchen, let me put it on the audio
and the bedroom, and also let me put it on
my stereo pair that's out in the living room, and automatically,
(06:21):
in real time, I can create that group by just
selecting those devices. And so that's really awesome. And then
the last one that you mentioned, Rich is stereo pair.
And what's cool about Nests Audio from the ground up,
it was designed for stereo pair. You put two of
these devices together, man, they look beautiful, and it's because
we thought that people would actually set them up for
(06:41):
stereo pairs. And what this allows you to do is
give stereo sound out of both devices. And it's really cool.
Especially when you were listening to a song that has
like vary ways of how the audio comes in or
the sound comes in, you can hear the device is
actually working together to add this extra level of dynamic
to the actual sound experience.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
So what are people doing on these smart speakers? I mean,
music is clearly probably one of the top things, I
mean questions whether what are some of the things that
your research tells you that people are using these for.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Well, you know what's cool is things like routines are
becoming extremely important, right because now our routine is all
in the same place, and you have to figure out
how to either make those easier or break them up.
And so I'll give you a good example what I do.
I have a routine that starts every day around five
(07:33):
point thirty and all it does is it cuts on
a few lights and it starts playing music. Rich. It's
a really simple thing to remind me to get up
and stop working. Right. It's like cause you can easily
keep rolling if you don't have something that breaks it up, right,
And so that's one thing that we're seeing a lot.
And also like for children, Hey, there's like, hey, this
is the worktime routine. This is like, okay, this is
(07:54):
your playtime routine. And so I think the Google Assistant
and our smart speakers are being super help on the
home around those areas.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Tell me about launching a product during a pandemic. I mean,
planning for this probably began before COVID. And so when
you realize that you have to continue this through this,
how do you do it?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Well? You take a deep breath, right and then and
then you get back to work. And I think what
the team did was was very valid. Like So what
it was amazing to me is I thought about, Hey,
there's things that in the testing where we have like
echo chambers, and we have lots of things where we
tested fabric and all these labs were actually on campus.
(08:37):
Rich people took trucks and rented trucks and actually got
the equipment from the campus and they put it in
places like their garage or their extra their extra room.
And so I would say in a couple of weeks
we were back up and running. When you think about
things like tuning, I actually think because of work for
home ness, audio sounds better. And the reason why is
(08:59):
our engineers we're spending so much time with the devices
at home and they've got to experience the sound and
real spaces on a constant basis. And I actually think
things like the tuning and things like making the assistant
faster got way better because we were living with these
devices on a day in and day out basis.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
All right, now we're talking smart speakers, and some of
the feedback I get is privacy. People are worried about
something or someone or Google listening to them, tell me
about privacy, and as that front and center on this device.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Privacy is core to the experience that we want to
deliver it to users in. It stems from our privacy
commitments that we made a few years ago around how
our devices work and how they're going to expect users privacy.
And similar to our other devices, Nets Audio has a
mute switch on the back, so you can easily turn
it off if you want, and you can easily turn
(09:52):
it back on when you need to. And then we
also have the assistant privacy features where you can tell
the system to forget the things that you said, or
you can also go to your my activity and you
can delete those items as well, And so we have
multiple ways to make sure that we're respecting users' privacy.
It is a core fundamental value that we want to
make sure that we deliver to users.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
All right, before we go, can you give me any
tips or tricks, any commands to try that I haven't
thought of.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Oh. I think one of the coolest things is actually
starting to use your phone as a way to start
to interact with the device. So casting some of your
favorite apps to the device I think is really cool.
I think actually going to the Google Home app and
starting to use the interface to control how you're moving
your music is really awesome. The last thing that I
(10:37):
will say from an assistance standpoint that it's kind of
exciting to me is now we're just playing a little
game of trivia at home where we use the assistant
as kind of like the game show hosts. And it's
pretty fun, right, And so we'll sit there and right
now we're doing it because the NBA Finals have started,
Like it's all about the status, and so we'll sit
(10:59):
there and well, you know, have a fun time going
back and forth about like, hey, what set player percentage
for shooting? What set player? Hey what set player this
and that, And it's a really cool, fun way to
expand the way that you're interacting and change the way
that you're interacting with the people in your home. But
it's also using the smart speaker, and I think in
(11:20):
a really unique.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Way awesome mark Space, product manager for Google Nest. Thanks
so much for joining me today. I do appreciate it.
Talking about the new Google Nest Audio smart speaker. My
name is rich dmiro Rich on tech dot TV. Thanks
for listening.
Rich Demiro here, Rich On Tech here with Mark Spates,
product manager for Google Next. Mark, thanks so much for
being on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh Rich, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
All right, let's talk about your brand new product. You've
got the Nest Audio smart speaker. This is a ninety
nine dollars smart speaker that kind of replaces a speaker
that came out many years ago, the original Google Home.
So tell me about this new speaker. I've got one
right here, and it has a whole new look and
feel to it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, Rich, I think the first visual that you saw
is part of the advancements that we made. And so
when we launched the original Google Home, I think what
was really interesting where people were surprised by its sound
and they actually appreciated that for the value in the
sound that they got. And so when we thought about
the next generation of it, Nest Audio, there are a
(00:50):
few things that we want to prove. On one, the
sound quality itself, and for us, what we wanted to
make sure is that there's a theoristic that users felt
when they had this sound with Nest Audio. It should
be full balanced with the lows and the mids and
the highs. It should be very clear as well, that
the vocals really come through and there's no distortion and
(01:12):
it's natural. Really, what the users should feel is what
the artists created and what they wanted to come through.
And there's a few ways that we achieved this rich
One is the Nest Audio actually has a seventy five
milimeter Wolfer and a nineteen milimeter Twitter and this is
really important because that allows us to really get better
(01:34):
base and allows us to even be awesome with the
vocals at extremely high values. But I think the key part,
and I think the natural, like how Google solves problems,
was we went about the tuning in a very software
driven way, a very data driven way. And I'll tell
(01:56):
you what that means. First, the team actually creates it
with nes Mini, our own proprietary tuning software, and what
that allows us to do is we can simulate over
two thousand and five hundred possible listening positions for the device.
And why is that important. It's because people have very
different homes. They put these devices everywhere, and we want
(02:18):
to make sure that it sounds great no matter where
you put it. And the features that really come out
of this data driven approach are three things. One, it's
called base extension. What we're able to do is extend
the base even when the device is at lower values,
and so if you're listening to it on valume two
or three, you still don't lose that emotional feeling of
(02:40):
the base coming through. The next one is ambient IQ.
What that allows us to do is leverage the background noise.
Let's say the faucet is running or the dryer is running.
We can make sure that the assistant voice actually adjusts
so that you can hear it no matter where the
device is in the room. And last, and I actually
thinks important for Nest Audio is media EQ. What we're
(03:04):
able to do is actually a just the tuning of
nests Audio to the music you're listening to, be it
hip hop or jazz or classical or the podcast as well.
And so what you're really seeing is is Google really
starting to develop a really clear way that we believe
things should sound, and then the technology behind it to
(03:25):
actually achieve it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Now, because you have so many speakers in the lineup
at this point, everything from the Mini to the Max
to the different displays, and this of course new Nest Audio,
there's almost a reason to have one in every room.
And you can at these price points. So tell me
about the idea of building a whole house system. You've
got this stream transfer feature and also the stereo pair feature,
(03:50):
so explain how those sort of work in the realm
of a house.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Oh, this is this is my favorite part. You know,
if I think about the things that I've been using
the most since we've all been working from home, these
are the features. And so the thing about creating that
whole home audio experience is that first we want to
make sure all our devices work together. And they all
are using Cast, which is awesome, and so it can
(04:16):
work with your hub, your hub Max, I can even
work with your Crome cast devices that are connected to
your TV right, So it really gives a pretty broad
range of things that work together. But the real outcome
is fill your home with music. And first it's about grouping,
and so you can set up a group and I
do this all the time. I literally have a group
(04:37):
called home and it's like Yo playing music on home.
But then I think there are other features that are
about the context of what you're doing in that day.
And so let's just say it's a Saturday and you're
cleaning a house. Something like stream transfer is perfect, right,
because what you can do is you're cleaning up in
the kitchen as I do, then I actually start to
move to the bathroom and I can say, hey, move
(04:59):
the move the music to the bathroom. And then you
get down clean up the bathroom. You got to go,
you know, finish up, clean up the living room, and
say hey, move the music to the living room. And
that allows the.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Music to say you just say those that term to it.
And you sort of have to know what your speakers
are named. I'm assuming right.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, if you only have one speaker in our room,
you can you can just use the room. But it
also works if you say, hey, GI, move the room,
move the music to the living room speaker, which is
the name of the speaker. And so uh, this this, this,
this easiness of being able to just use it with
your voice is awesome. And if you have a Hub
Max or you have a hub, you can also just
(05:37):
do it with with touch you can go to the interface.
You actually can do the same thing using the interface
on a Hub or a Hub Max. Uh. The next
feature which we just recently introduced, which is multi room expansion.
This is the thought that sometimes you want to create
a group dynamically on the on the fly that you
haven't created before. And so the core things for this is,
(05:59):
like you know, all of us sometimes we get into it,
we get into the point where we're working out and
so like this is what I do. I'm like, Okay,
I want the sound to come through a little bit more,
and so let me put it on my Nest hub
in the kitchen, let me put it on the audio
and the bedroom, and also let me put it on
my stereo pair that's out in the living room, and automatically,
(06:21):
in real time, I can create that group by just
selecting those devices. And so that's really awesome. And then
the last one that you mentioned, Rich is stereo pair.
And what's cool about Nests Audio from the ground up,
it was designed for stereo pair. You put two of
these devices together, man, they look beautiful, and it's because
we thought that people would actually set them up for
(06:41):
stereo pairs. And what this allows you to do is
give stereo sound out of both devices. And it's really cool.
Especially when you were listening to a song that has
like vary ways of how the audio comes in or
the sound comes in, you can hear the device is
actually working together to add this extra level of dynamic
to the actual sound experience.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
So what are people doing on these smart speakers? I mean,
music is clearly probably one of the top things, I
mean questions whether what are some of the things that
your research tells you that people are using these for.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Well, you know what's cool is things like routines are
becoming extremely important, right because now our routine is all
in the same place, and you have to figure out
how to either make those easier or break them up.
And so I'll give you a good example what I do.
I have a routine that starts every day around five
(07:33):
point thirty and all it does is it cuts on
a few lights and it starts playing music. Rich. It's
a really simple thing to remind me to get up
and stop working. Right. It's like cause you can easily
keep rolling if you don't have something that breaks it up, right,
And so that's one thing that we're seeing a lot.
And also like for children, Hey, there's like, hey, this
is the worktime routine. This is like, okay, this is
(07:54):
your playtime routine. And so I think the Google Assistant
and our smart speakers are being super help on the
home around those areas.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Tell me about launching a product during a pandemic. I mean,
planning for this probably began before COVID. And so when
you realize that you have to continue this through this,
how do you do it?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Well? You take a deep breath, right and then and
then you get back to work. And I think what
the team did was was very valid. Like So what
it was amazing to me is I thought about, Hey,
there's things that in the testing where we have like
echo chambers, and we have lots of things where we
tested fabric and all these labs were actually on campus.
(08:37):
Rich people took trucks and rented trucks and actually got
the equipment from the campus and they put it in
places like their garage or their extra their extra room.
And so I would say in a couple of weeks
we were back up and running. When you think about
things like tuning, I actually think because of work for
home ness, audio sounds better. And the reason why is
(08:59):
our engineers we're spending so much time with the devices
at home and they've got to experience the sound and
real spaces on a constant basis. And I actually think
things like the tuning and things like making the assistant
faster got way better because we were living with these
devices on a day in and day out basis.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
All right, now we're talking smart speakers, and some of
the feedback I get is privacy. People are worried about
something or someone or Google listening to them, tell me
about privacy, and as that front and center on this device.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Privacy is core to the experience that we want to
deliver it to users in. It stems from our privacy
commitments that we made a few years ago around how
our devices work and how they're going to expect users privacy.
And similar to our other devices, Nets Audio has a
mute switch on the back, so you can easily turn
it off if you want, and you can easily turn
(09:52):
it back on when you need to. And then we
also have the assistant privacy features where you can tell
the system to forget the things that you said, or
you can also go to your my activity and you
can delete those items as well, And so we have
multiple ways to make sure that we're respecting users' privacy.
It is a core fundamental value that we want to
make sure that we deliver to users.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
All right, before we go, can you give me any
tips or tricks, any commands to try that I haven't
thought of.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Oh. I think one of the coolest things is actually
starting to use your phone as a way to start
to interact with the device. So casting some of your
favorite apps to the device I think is really cool.
I think actually going to the Google Home app and
starting to use the interface to control how you're moving
your music is really awesome. The last thing that I
(10:37):
will say from an assistance standpoint that it's kind of
exciting to me is now we're just playing a little
game of trivia at home where we use the assistant
as kind of like the game show hosts. And it's
pretty fun, right, And so we'll sit there and right
now we're doing it because the NBA Finals have started,
Like it's all about the status, and so we'll sit
(10:59):
there and well, you know, have a fun time going
back and forth about like, hey, what set player percentage
for shooting? What set player? Hey what set player this
and that, And it's a really cool, fun way to
expand the way that you're interacting and change the way
that you're interacting with the people in your home. But
it's also using the smart speaker, and I think in
(11:20):
a really unique.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Way awesome mark Space, product manager for Google Nest. Thanks
so much for joining me today. I do appreciate it.
Talking about the new Google Nest Audio smart speaker. My
name is rich dmiro Rich on tech dot TV. Thanks
for listening.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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