Parrot unveils its first wireless audio and telephony headphones: Parrot Zik

The wireless audio headphones, designed by Philippe Starck, inspired by nature, full of sensors, which redefine the listening of music…

Designed by Philippe Starck, the Zik headphones host the most state-of-the-art technologies: highly performing active noise control, “spatialized” musical image, touch panel that enables sensual movements, head detection sensor, bone conduction sensor, five microphones and a powerful digital signal processor… With the Zik, Parrot is reinventing audio headphones for a never-before-seen sensorial experience…

Available with all leading stores.
Music: a “humanized” musical image…

A natural musical image
Because music listening should be harmonious and profound, Parrot took great pains with the sound depiction of the Zik.
The headphone is thus equipped with powerful DSP algorithms (Digital Signal Processing) that build a natural melodic image. This is the ‘Parrot Concert Hall’ algorithm: the music is ‘placed’ in front of you, like in a concert, and does not arrive from right and left. The sensation of a thumping room is over! The acoustics of a concert hall is recreated for harmonious and much more natural listening.
A free application for iOS or Android allows defining the parameters of the ‘Parrot Concert Hall’ effects.

Active Noise Cancelling (Parrot patented)
Insistent, muffled or direct… In a plane, in a train or in the street… The noise is everywhere.
To cut oneself off from it, Parrot engineers developed an extremely performing active noise cancelling technology -patented- which eliminates up to 25db for an uncompromising listening comfort, even in extreme conditions.

Hands-free telephony: Conversation, without compromise…

Parrot Zik enables the user to take or answer phone calls hands-free. It offers both user and the person on the other end of the line, conversations with exceptional sound quality, even in a very noisy environment!
The Parrot Zik is thus equipped with two technologies, which jointly cancel the surrounding noise in order to keep only the voice.

Bone Conduction Sensor
This sensor, located in the cushion of the left earpiece, detects and analyzes jaw bone vibrations to extract the speech. The headphones can then measure the speech before it is distorted by surrounding noise.
Active Noise Reduction (Parrot patented)
In real time, two microphones record the sound and determine its direction. The digital signal processor of the Zik can then determine the origin of the noise and eliminate it.

The innovation of the ergonomic…

Designed as the extension of Smartphone, the Parrot Zik is putting the usage at the heart of technological innovations.
Capacitive panel
The access to the basic functions of the Zik is super intuitive thanks to a tactile panel, like those of Smartphones, and located on the entire surface of the right headset. Move one finger vertically to enable volume control. Move it horizontally to launch the next or previous music track. During a phone call, no need to look for your Smartphone. Tap on the right headset to take the call, touch the panel for two seconds to reject it… Quite simply…

Head detection
One gesture is enough to pause the music: turn the Zik around the neck… Replace the Zik on the head and the music plays again.

Organic lines…
While drawing the organic lines of the Parrot Zik, Philippe Starck illustrated the “biology-inspired” technologies that Parrot engineers developed.

The Parrot Zik is a ‘fused looking’ object. A sensitive object, full of sensors. The Zik is revealing your emotions. The Zik merges with the body, like a technological extension of you to listen to music.

“Despite its simple and humble design, Zik is certainly today one of our most successful products in terms of intuitive ergonomics,” says Philippe Starck. “The headphones are perfectly balanced and almost seem fused looking like a mere extension of the human body and all its needs. Sound and consequently music are just a search of one’s own world. The more the sound is close to you, the more you’ll like the music and feel comfortable. An object like this is a universe.”

The materials were carefully selected… The surface of the headsets, matte black with a soft touch, expresses the sensuality of the skin. Two steel-like ‘commas’ underline the skeleton of the headphones. Adjustable, the headband plays the contrast between metals’ alloy and “leather-like” band.

Multi-compatibility…
An extension of Smartphones and tablets, the Parrot Zik is equipped with the latest wireless technologies. Parrot Zik is compatible with all brands of mobile phones available in the market and works with a large number of music sources: audio with Bluetooth stereo or via a three-point mini jack cable for the connection to all audio and video systems, like planes’ ones.
The Parrot Zik also integrates NFC technology, thanks to a tag located on the left headset. A first for a headphone…

“All we create at Parrot is primarily driven by software ideas. Parrot is a company of engineers who have worked for years on spatialization, and giving with the Zik a much more natural ambience to the music that we usually got with headphones,’ says Henri Seydoux. “The headphone is virtually one of the hardest things that we have ever imagined. Since it is, in some way, the most banal.”

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The Parrot Zik works with a Li-Ion battery rechargeable with USB /micro USB cable.
The headphones come with:
1 Li-Ion battery (800mAh, 24h autonomy)
1 USB/micro USB cable
1 three-point mini jack 3 points cable
1 protective pouch
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Price: For AED 1499
Available with all leading stores.

ABOUT PARROT
Parrot, a global leader in wireless devices for mobile phones, stands on the cutting edge of innovation. The company was founded in 1994 by Henri Seydoux as part of his determination to drive the inevitable breakthrough of mobile phones into everyday life by creating high-quality, user-friendly wireless devices for easy living. Parrot has developed the most extensive range of hands-free systems on the market for cars. Its globally recognized expertise in the fields of mobile connectivity and multimedia around smartphones has positioned Parrot as a key player of in-car infotainment.

Additionally, Parrot designs and markets an exclusive ‘Parrot by’ range, consisting of a prestigious line of high-end wireless multimedia products in collaboration with some of the world’s most well-renowned artists; and the AR.Drone, the first quadricopter piloted via Wi-Fi and using augmented reality.

Parrot, headquartered in Paris, currently employs more than 650 people worldwide and generates the majority of its sales overseas. Parrot is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris since 2006. (FR0004038263 – PARRO)

How does it work?
Two microphones, located on the external part of the headset, capture surrounding noises. Two other microphones –one in each headset- analyze residual noises (low frequencies) that could disrupt the listening. The analyzed noise outside is thus cancelled by opposite acoustic waves (noise cancelling) to create a silent environment.

How does it work?
Thanks to high quality Neodynium magnets, the Parrot Zik gives a very powerful and very subtle sound with a frequency answer from 10Hz to 20kHz and a sensibility from 110dB SPL per volt to 1kHz.