Wireless
speakers systems offer
greater flexibility and convenience to home theater owners. But there
is more than just doing away with some speaker wire when installing a
wireless home theater solution!
As
things stand today, the term wireless in the audio and video world does
not mean 'wireless' - rather all that it means is less wires. And this
applies to any wireless speaker system presently available on
the market.
Still, this in
itself can turn out to be a great advantage to many.
Home theater systems are synonymous with a huge mass of home theater
cables that are not only unsightly, but also difficult to troubleshoot
should problems arise.
Concealing this
mass of cables is surely not a straightforward job.
This being especially so if you do not have pre-wired walls and
ceilings for an in-wall home entertainment wiring solution.
Professionals
can do the job for you but it will surely turn out to be expensive, and
often difficult to manage.
Unfortunately,
eliminating the mass of cables and interconnects between
system components is still not a completely viable option. But
reducing the clutter, yes.
In
particular, today's wireless home theater
systems primarily focus around the use of wireless speakers systems
to eliminate trailing speaker wires around the room perimeter when
installing rear speakers in a surround sound setup.
Sending
audio across rooms in the home through a wireless link is also starting
to emerge as a viable option.
...but this is
as far as today's mass-market wireless solutions go.
It
is not that advanced wireless technology isn't available. Both
Bluetooth
and
WI-FI are readily available to help you expand your
wireless networking from a simple home office to a fully integrated
home entertainment system.
Yet,
even though there are already several products on the market with
wireless support - including set-top boxes, wireless speakers
systems, media players, and the like - a full wireless home
entertainment solution is still not a true mass-market proposition.
Admittedly,
things are changing fast, and what
was unattainable and unaffordable up to the recent past, is becoming
attainable, affordable and better than ever.
Of
particular interest in wireless home entertainment is the effort by a
number of manufacturers like NETGEAR, Actiontec, D-Link, etc.,
with their Wireless Digital Media Players.
Even
if you have a computer with Windows XP Media Center, Vista Home Premium
or Vista Ultimate edition, you can use your Xbox
360 or a Media
Center Extender to stream TV, digital audio and
video, photos, and more.
Furthermore,
for less than $300, it is possible to get access to video, photo and
music files from anywhere within the home network, whether it being
your home PC, internet, etc. Digital Media Players use your existing TV
or Home Entertainment system to play digital audio and video files.
These come with a remote control and an intuitive on-screen menu
for easy access of digital content through your TV screen.
However...
It
is true that wireless media players provide
for ease of integration of audio and video data from PCs or any other
device accessible through the home network. Yet there is still no
complete wireless home theater solution that many would dream of, where
all audio and video systems are interlinked through a wireless setup.
In this
article, we take a closer look at wireless
speakers systems, the technology in use behind these systems, and the
available solutions from major manufacturers.
Wireless Home
Entertainment: The Hard Facts
The
use of audio and video interconnects will still remain for a number of
years to come. Quality, security, and pricing, are among the main
issues which manufactures of wireless home entertainment systems have
to work out before this technology can be delivered at a price that is
appealing to the mass-market.
This does not mean
that wireless technology isn't already providing a
helping hand in the home theater and home entertainment. Full PC/home
theater integration through a wireless solution is already easily
achieved.
And there
is more...
Technology has
evolved to the point where, setting up say a wireless
speaker system for the rear speakers or a multi-room installation, is
often as simple as taking the wireless speaker kit out of the box and
power it on. Some affordable wireless systems (like the
Rocketfish RF-WHTIB reviewed on our site), are so good that once
installed, you would soon forget there are no wires in between!
We
still say that as yet, wired sound quality
is superior. But the gap between wired and wireless speakers systems
has diminished to a point where with certain sound mixes, it would
prove hard to perceive any difference in sound quality.
Wireless
Speakers Systems - Understanding the
Technology
In
order to understand the technology behind wireless speakers systems,
first one must realize that there is truly no complete wireless speaker
system. These systems still require at least some connectivity to a
power source. Wireless speakers systems require amplification either
through an integrated amplifier or through an external unit; and you
cannot amplify a signal without power!
It
is true that there exists a number of battery-powered wireless speakers
systems. However, these would normally be more suitable for multi-room
audio or for external use rather than for home theater. Battery power
simply cannot provide sufficient audio power for home theater use in a
viable manner.
Therefore,
the key factor with any wireless
speaker setup is not a total wireless solution. Rather, it is the
added flexibility and convenience of not having to wire the
speakers all the way across the room or home. And this applies
irrespective of whether this being for the rear surround, or for some
remote speaker setup in a multi-room audio environment.
When it comes to
home theater wireless speakers systems, there are two main approaches:
Add-on Units and Integrated
Wireless Systems.
Normally,
these make use of wireless transmission over the 900Mhz or 2.4GHz bands
to transmit audio signals using digital technology to the
remote speakers.
You
may also find a few units operating
in the 5.8GHz band. These units are less likely to suffer from
interference from mobile phones, microwave ovens, and other household
appliances operating in the 900Mhz or 2.4Ghz bands. Furthermore, most
WLANs operate in the 2.4GHz range. At the same time, one cannot ignore
the fact that 5.8GHz systems often support shorted distances.
Typical
Add-on Units consist of a
small sender unit that connects either to the rear-channel speaker out
on the A/V receiver, or to the line-level out on your video source.
These units use wireless digital technology to transmit the audio
signal to a powered audio receiver unit at the back of the room.
The
remote rear unit would normally employ
built-in power amplifiers to drive the rear speakers. Ideally, these
should be the same rear surround speakers that came with your home
theater system, though any appropriate set of rear speakers will do.
Connection
between the rear receiver unit and
the surround speakers is achieved through the use of normal speaker
wire. All that remains to have a functional wireless speaker system
setup is to plug the wireless sender and receiver units into convenient
mains power outlets.
These
add-on units represent the ideal
solution if you already own a home theater receiver complete with all
the necessary speakers, and all you are looking for is a way to remove
those unsightly rear speaker wires crossing the room.
Add-on
units with integrated power amplifiers
in a wireless speakers system setup designed for home theater surround
would typically deliver anything between 25W and 50W RMS per channel.
This renders these systems compatible with entry to mid-level home
theater systems.
If
you want more power for your rear wireless
speakers, you will have to use add-on wireless speakers systems that
hook into a suitable external stereo amplifier placed at the far end,
to driver the surround speakers.
But
the role of add-on wireless speaker
systems is not limited only to their use as a rear wireless speaker
solution in the home theater. These units may very well serve as a
convenient - possibly cheaper alternative to in-wall wiring -
in a comprehensive home entertainment system in a multi-room audio
installation.
For
reviews of available add-on wireless speakers systems, check our
wireless speaker reviews here.
Integrated
Home Theater Wireless Speakers Solutions: If you are in the process of purchasing a
completely new home-theater-in-a-box solution, a fully integrated
home theater system with wireless rear-speakers would then represents a
cheaper and more convenient alternative.
These
integrated solutions include an audio wireless set-up for the rear
channel speakers. Integrated wireless solutions would normally support
some interesting control features for the rear channel - in
particular with respect to the delay settings - that are well
integrated with the overall system menu.
However,
do not expect to find a large selection of wireless home theater
systems. Your choice is very much limited in this respect - in
particular if what you are after is an affordable solution that still
provides good performance.
However,
you can still find a number of
interesting products from major players such as Philips, Panasonic,
Samsung, and Sony.
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