For audio fans fed up of audio and power cables, a US Company has come up with a neat new capability that allows the audio compete with Dolby Atmos to be transferred vias the power cable.
Arizona-based Fasetto has announced that its Audio Cu system, which connects TVs and other audio devices to speakers and subwoofers using a home’s existing power line wiring, has now received Dolby Atmos Product Certification.
The company claims it is the first audio-over-power-line manufacturer to receive this certification.
Audio Cu’s technology allows you to place your existing wired speakers anywhere you have a power outlet, instead of running speaker cable through walls, or under carpets in your home.
Using your home’s existing power lines, it can transmit up to 10 channels of lossless, hi-res audio at up to 24-bit/192 kHz from a single transmitter to multiple receivers.
Several networking companies already make use of power line networking products that act as alternatives to Ethernet and Wi-Fi. However, solutions focused exclusively on multichannel, multiroom audio are yet to become mainstream.
Typically, issues such as latency or packet loss from the transmitter to the receivers create inferior audio quality in home theaters.
Fasetto claims to be the only company that has overcome these obstacles and can move data “cleanly over power lines in all environments.”
For a home theater setup with five speakers and a subwoofer, the company says that you’d need seven power outlets and seven Audio Cu devices — one transmitter for your TV (an AV receiver isn’t needed) and one receiver for each speaker.
It notes that the added latency of the system (signals are specially encoded before being sent through power lines) is less than 20 milliseconds, and it’s not affected by interference.
Any speaker with red and black (positive and negative) terminals is compatible with Audio Cu, and up to 10 channels can be sent through power lines from a single transmitter, accommodating a 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos setup.
For bigger homes, up to six transmitters in separate setups can be used. However, the Audio Cu system maxes out at a total of 32 channels, reported The Verge.
Fasetto says you can avoid the use of an AV receiver by using its mobile app to configure your sound preferences. But with only a single HDMI ARC/eARC input – and no support for AirPlay, Google Cast, or Bluetooth – an Audio Cu transmitter isn’t as versatile as a AV receiver.
As part of a smart home management setup, the company has also created software that lets professional installers remotely monitor the performance of their customers’ Audio Cu components, to assist with any troubleshooting should the need arise.
