RCA has chosen local fabless semiconductor company Kleer to help develop wireless headphones for its latest wireless MP3 audio player.

The electronics giant will be using Kleer's Audio LP technology to provide consumers of its new RCA Jet Stream MP3 player with compact, wireless headphones which consume 10 times less battery power than Bluetooth.

"One of the key features we can offer active consumers is the ability to 'cut the cord' by utilizing Kleer's wireless technology," said Dwight Sakuma, general manager of audio/video for RCA parent company Thomson. "We immediately recognized Kleer as a technology that could meet our requirements, particularly in terms of audio quality, battery life, and immunity to interference."

The Kleer wireless solution is said to allow up to four simultaneous users to listen to the same music on the RCA device, and provides CD-quality audio while stretching battery life out to 10 hours.

"We're thrilled that a quality brand such as RCA has chosen to use Kleer to enable a key differentiating feature for their next generation of MP3 players," said Kleer chief executive Levent Gun. "We see support for wireless earphones as the price of entry for MP3 players over the coming months, and RCA is setting the pace for this capability."

RCA's Jet Stream MP3 players will ship later this spring.

Kleer is headquartered in Cupertina, Calif. with product development facilities in Ottawa.