A new Wireless speaker technology is emerging that will allow uncompressed 96/24 audio up to 100 metres line of sight or 40 metres through two walls.
Among the first to adopt the technology which has been developed by the Wireless Speaker and Audio (WiSA) association is Bang & Olufsen
The current WiSA technology transmits up to 7.1 channels of uncompressed 96/24 audio up to 10 meters line-of-sight within a room. The new technology, called Extended Distance (XD), will support a 7.4 home theater speaker system simultaneously with up to seven zones of multiroom audio. Range will expand to 100 meters line of sight, or 30 meters through three walls, said WiSA president James Venable.
The aim of the new standard is to turn wireless in-room home theater speaker technology into wireless multi-zone stereo technology.
WiSA is currently building modules for inclusion in product prototypes for proof-of-concept testing,
Products for the residential and commercial industries could be available in mid-2015 the Association said.
Product incorporating the technology will also be available for the mass sound market by early 2015.
Twice claims that the current technology could support four stereo zones, but firmware changes would be needed to implement the capability.
A key advantage of WiSA multi-room technology over Wi-Fi-enabled multi-zone audio is the use of the far quieter unlicensed U-NII band, which sits between Wi-Fi bands, said Venable.
Another is the ability to jump out of the way of interference without dropouts, he said. WiSA technology is promoted as delivering interference-free, wired-quality wireless audio, and eliminating cable clutter, enabling more flexible placement of home-theater speakers by eliminating speaker-cable runs, and overcoming the sound quality, interference, latency and cost challenges associated with other wireless technologies designed for multichannel home theaters, WiSA has said.
