WiSA Featured in CEDIA Webinar, Wireless Audio Solutions Part 2: Tech Specs and Best Practices
By WiSA Staff Writers
The WiSA Association was recently featured in a couple of webinars hosted by Steven Rissi of CEDIA. In case you missed them, here is a link to the CEDIA webinar archive. If you are not a CEDIA member, you can still view the videos after filling out a simple form.
The first webinar was accompanied by an interview with WiSA President, Jim Venable. The second webinar was more technical in nature than the previous session, and featured Alan Ruberg, the chief technologist for the WiSA Association. The main topics were:
- Wireless Technology
- What About Power?
- Installation Best Practices
Alan talked about about benefits of the WiSA technology versus the 2.4 GHz band or Wi-Fi based devices, because everyone is using it for internet content. But for home theater surround sound, a higher level of audio quality, and reliability, is required.
We encourage you to watch these webinars and read our whitepaper to familiarize yourself with the WiSA Association and related technical details.
3 Out 4 U.S. Households Have HDTVs (But How Do They Sound?)
By Paul Konikowski, CTS-D, LEED Green Associate
According to this wonderful article by Telecompetitor
“High-definition television (HDTV) sets are present in 75% of U.S. households, up from 23% five years ago according to Leichtman Research Group’s (LRG) 1Q 2013 Research Notes. Fifty-two percent of U.S. households have adopted HDTV over the past five years, according to LRG’s latest report.”
But my question is, how do they sound? Are these consumers really going to settle for thin speakers and wimpy sound that comes standard in these HDTVs? Aren’t they going to ask for wireless speakers next? Ok, that’s three questions, I apologize.
In my opinion, the answers are, in order: bad; no; yes.
As TVs get bigger, better, and thinner, the audio from the TV speakers heads South. Its called an inverse relationship. The thinner the TV, the worse it sounds, generally. Soon, external, self amplified speakers are going to be standard. The WiSA Association and its Members are working to make sure the transition to wireless is simple. By agreeing to use the same high standards of quality and protocol, the WiSA Members take away the risk and worry normally associated with wireless devices.
Its wireless audio from brands you know and trust. And not just speaker brands, WiSA Members also include manufacturers of HDTVs, AV receivers and video playback devices. Stay “tuned” for more product announcements later in 2013!
For more information on the WiSA Association and its members, please visit http://www.wisaassociation.org/
WiSA Association PowerPoint Slides From CEDIA Wireless Audio Webinar
The WiSA Association wants to thank CEDIA for hosting the recent online webinar called “Wireless Audio Solutions, Threat or Opportunity”. We look forward to participatin in the next Emerging Trends webinar on April 18 at 10 a.m.
Here are some of the slides that were presented during the webinar, for yor reference. If you have any questions, please email info@wisaassociation.org.
CEDIA Webinar - Wireless Audio Solutions: Threat or Opportunity?
Free! This webinar is a part of the Emerging Trends Series.
Thursday, March 21
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. (EST)
CEDIA’s Emerging Trends webinar series will focus on wireless speaker technology in March and April. Learn how you can profit from new wireless speaker technology in this month’s Emerging Trends webinar. Be sure to watch for more details on the second part, happening in April.
If you’ve been in this business for any length of time, you’re sure to have fielded the question, “What about wireless speakers?” In the past there were no solutions available that could compete with the performance of traditional hardwired systems. However, today is a much different story. With multiple vendors and formats emerging to provide High Fidelity wireless audio to speakers in remote locations, it seems we’ve finally found a contender to go toe to toe with the “champ”. Join us for this one hour webinar as we discuss the technologies available, how they work, and how they will impact the marketplace. Explore the deeper topics of power, interference, latency, compression and more. At a time when retrofit integration is an increasingly important segment of the market, integrators need to evaluate whether these products open the threat to more DIY, or offer opportunities to increase both revenue and operational efficiency. Don’t miss your chance to prepare yourself, and step confidently into this brave new wireless world!
Click here to register for this free live webinar Thursday March 21 from 1p.m. to 2p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
Click here to read a short interview with WiSA President, Jim Venable.
WiSA Association Meets, Greets, and Treats at the Home Entertainment Source/TRIB Group Summit
By James Venable, President of WiSA, LLC.
WiSA Chief Technologist Alan Ruberg and I had a great time this year in Orlando at The Summit, a trade show type convention hosted by the Home Entertainment Source (a.k.a. BrandSource) and The TRIB Group. It seemed like every major consumer speaker manufacturer was there, along with consumers and lots of value-added resellers. In traditional AV business fashion, the event kicked off on Sunday February 17 with a golf tournament. Unfortunately, we were too busy setting up our booth to go golfing (next year!). The main expo area was open Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and the WiSA Association Booth was front and center. We demonstrated the wireless surround sound speaker system to hundreds of folks. At one point, we were asked to turn our system down a notch, not realizing that the surround sound audio was radiating through the entire show hall! In addition to the trade show aspect, there were lots of supplier training sessions and classes, including two by the wonderful Julie Jacobson, editor of CE Pro, entitled
“20 Ways to Earn Recurring Revenue” and
“Hot Technologies for 2013”
The WiSA Association was also mentioned in the keynote address. It seems like everyone is getting on board the wireless bandwagon, and we think that is great for the industry. What makes WiSA certified speakers different from other wireless speakers out there is the quality-assurance of the wireless link, the interoperability between brands, and the fact that WiSA can do 7.1 Surround Sound in full HD, while other wireless systems simply can not.
-J.V.
Video Gaming With Surround Sound Speakers
By WiSA Staff Writers
With rumors circulating of the PlayStation 4 being released, we thought it was a perfect opportunity to talk about how the WiSA Association is changing the future of video gaming. By bringing quality, wireless, surround sound speakers to any room in your house, your favorite “gaming room” will be instantly upgraded with WiSA-certified speakers.
The Way You And/Or Your Kids Play Video Games Today
The Way You And/Or Your Kids Will Play Video Games In The Future
WiSA demos gaming at the International Consumer Electronics Show and Integrated Systems Europe
Recently, we were able to test drive the WiSA wireless surround sound speakers at two trades shows: CES and ISE. I can’t tell you how much fun it was to play SSX Snowboarding in full surround sound 5.1 audio. The 5ms fixed delay means gaming sounds and commands are responsive. The speakers won’t run out of batteries like wireless headsets, because each has a power cable (not pictured in diagram above).
For more information on the WiSA Association, please visit http://www.wisaassociation.org
“I made a trip to the WiSA room, where they offered up another demonstration of their wireless audio technology that should be out in stores this year. This demonstration was using a set of Klipsch speakers, as well as a Sharp Blu-ray player, but in this case everything was wireless. The Sharp used the WiHD standard (60 GHz, like the DVDO Air) to stream to the display, and it had the internal transmitter for the WiSA speakers as well, so it was sending the audio to those. The Blu-ray player just sat on the table the entire time. Despite all of the wireless signals going around the Venetian, there wasn’t a single hiccup or dropout in the audio or the video for this demo, which is really impressive. For people that want to add better sound to their system, but don’t want to run a bunch of wiring, the WiSA solution looks to be a nice one once products start to come out this year.”
“At CES 2013, WiSA’s Alan Ruberg discusses the group’s frequency spectrum standard, references designs and then shows off the Summit Semiconductor Audio Hub.”
