While questionable in the past, wireless audio is emerging again. And it’s giving wired systems a run for their money. Paul Skelton reports.

In recent years, TVs have progressively evolved into much thinner devices that are capable of delivering pristine high-definition (HD) video. On the other hand, sound quality on these new ultra-thin TVs has suffered, simply because there’s not enough space for a high-quality speaker.

As a result, consumers and home theatre enthusiasts who desire premium HD audio must invest in a separate audio system to complement their home theatre set up. The problem is they often don’t.

Sure, there are several soundbartype systems available and, for some, this solution is good enough. However, for a true home theatre experience where you can enjoy Full HD video and audio, these types of systems can be a poor substitute.

A wireless audio system that is affordable, easy to install and configure would be ideal.

Fortunately, advancements in wireless audio technology mean new systems readily surpass old-generation systems, which operated on the same frequency as most wireless electronic devices in the home like cordless phones, baby monitors, security monitors, wireless internet routers and microwaves — resulting in interference and poor quality audio.

In light of these advancements, in December 2011 a group of manufacturers from the consumer electronics (CE) industry came together to form the Wireless Speaker and Audio (WiSA) Association.

These manufacturers included Aperion Audio, DEI Holdings (the parent company of Polk Audio and Definitive Technology), GGEC, Hansong Electronics Co., Klipsch, Meiloon Industrial Co., Pioneer, Sharp, Silicon Image and Summit Semiconductor.

The group’s objective was to advance the adoption of wirelessly transmitted, HD surround-sound audio in the home theatre environment by establishing the industry’s first interoperability specification and certification testing programs for manufacturers of high-performance wireless speakers, TVs, Blu-ray Disc players and other CE devices.

Most recently, the group released the WiSA compliance test specification (CTS) 1.0 in addition to a soundbar reference design, both of which are available to all WiSA members.

“Consumers are looking for a reliable, high-quality wireless audio experience that offers seamless interoperability between products from multiple brands,” WiSA Association president Jim Venable says.

“Through the interoperability testing and certification programs created by the WiSA Association, manufacturers will be able to bring products to market that provide consumers with a wireless audio experience of exceptional performance and ease of use.”

Ultimately, the WiSA certification and testing program will allow installers and consumers to outfit a home entertainment system with WiSAcertified speakers and components from any participating vendor with the assurance that the devices will communicate with each other and provide the highest standard in wireless HD surround sound audio.

By operating in the 5GHz Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) spectrum, WiSA-certified products are designed to avoid the interference, signal loss and the generally unpredictable behaviour reported by many users of legacy wireless speaker connections. Further, WiSA-certified products offer 24-bit uncompressed audio; a sample rate that matches the content (e.g. 32k, 44.1k, 48k and 96k samples per second); rapid error detection and recovery; 5ms fixed latency; and a speaker-to-speaker delay of less than 160ns.

“We believe very strongly that consumers need interoperability between devices, and this is a pressure point in the industry,” Jim says.

“Historically, wireless speakers have simply not been very good. They operated in the 2.4GHz WiFi range, which suffers a lot of congestion and interference, and the user experience has been abysmal.”

“As a result, there is a point in the market today that would allow a high quality audio wireless technology to really gain some traction.”

Jim explains that WiSA compliance also ensures that components are easy to setup – simply position the speakers in a room then plug the transmitter unit (TV, disc player, game console, AV receiver) and speakers into power outlets. If the speaker positions need to change, simply move them. There are no speaker cable, connection or speakeramplifier matching to do.

“We’ve really focused on the broad section of the market where people have average sized living rooms. If these people desire some sort of upgrade to their audio system they don’t want to drill holes or pull wires, they want the flexibility to rearrange their room whenever they want to without having to bring in the experts to recalibrate or rewire the system,” Jim says.

“Wireless systems need to work straight out of the box. They have to be easy to setup and a consumer needs to be able to purchase with confidence.”

To complete the installation, WiSAcertified speakers are simply dragged to the desired position. The system then assigns channels and determines the distance between speakers. From there, the components correct for volume and the delay in the room.

Should the speakers be moved, the system instantly adapts by changing the volume and delay for all of the speakers.

Channels (e.g. front, surround, rear, right, left, centre, etc) are assigned to the speakers either automatically or by selection on a screen. This is the same for letting the system know the locations of the speakers. In less expensive systems, selection is done on an onscreen display or using a mobile app.

For more ‘fully-featured’ speakers, the automatic approach involves the use of ultrasonic transducers (pingers), for which WiSA compliance has a provision for correct interoperability over the entire room. Each speaker contains a pinger and from one speaker, the distances are measured to all of the other speakers, much like the way whales, dolphins and bats locate things. This serves the purpose of automatically mapping the locations of the speakers and their channel assignments just by turning on the system.

Recently, industry veteran and founding member of CEDIA US Sam Runco joined the WiSA Advisory Board to support the promotion and broad adoption of wireless audio speaker technology in the home.

Sam has more than 30 years’ experience in the home theatre industry and is the founder of Runco International.

“WiSA-compliant speakers are the first to provide consumers with a superior quality, interference-free, wireless surround-sound experience while offering interoperability with other WiSAcompliant CE components,” he says.

Jim adds: “We’re looking forward to forming a really tight relationship with the custom install market.”

“We were wary of how installers would receive a wireless audio technology but the response has actually been surprising. These guys don’t generally like to pull wire. It’s something they have to do, because that’s what the current technology requires.

“It’s also not a big profit centre for them and it’s labour intensive, so having a high quality audio system that they can install while maintaining the same price it will increase their margin.”

Undoubtedly, there will be many installers who remain sceptical of any wireless audio system. But, Jim says, the technology has advanced so far that they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a WiSA and a wired system.

“In fact, I would put money on the fact that someone with ‘golden ears’ would not be able to tell the difference between wired and WiSA-certified wireless audio.

“WiSA systems transmit 96KHz 24-bit uncompressed audio which is near-cinema quality.”