The Road to WiSA Compliance: TVs & Blu-ray Players
Last week, we received a lot of great media coverage about Sam Runco joining the Wireless Speaker and Audio Association Advisory Board. Some good questions were raised by the HDLiving.com staff about the future evolution of WiSA, specifically in regards to Blu-ray players and HD televisions, and how they fit into the long-term WiSA compliance “equation”. We would like shed some light on those questions.
The currently available Aperion Audio wireless speaker systems include a wireless transceiver component (box) that acts like a mini 3x1 HDMI switcher and AVR. Any standard (non-WiSA compliant) HDMI enabled TV and Blu-ray player would connect to the WiSA compliant transmitter using two HDMI cables. So why would a consumer want/need a WiSA compliant Television, Blu-ray, or other WiSA enabled components?
In the future, a WiSA compliant television set could actually have the WiSA transmitter and ultrasonic transducers built into the TV bezel (a.k.a mullion, the frame around the screen). A WiSA compliant TV would be able to connect to WiSA compliant soundbar, subwoofer, and/or surround sound speakers (up to 7.4) without any speaker wires or a separate transmitter box. So, that’s one less component, less power draw, and one less HDMI wire.
Similarly, a Blu-ray or DVD player could be outfitted with a WiSA transmitter, making it the WiSA compliant transmitter, the center of the equation. A WiSA compliant Blu-ray player could connect to a standard non-WiSA TV, or WiSA enabled TV, either way using an HDMI cable. The upcoming WiSA 1.0 specification does not call for transmitting video, but does promise high quality uncompressed audio in the original sampling rate.
There are currently no plans for WiSA to include wireless video transmission, but we are doing our best to be fully interoperable with those wireless technologies, by basically not competing for the same wireless frequency channels. If they do decide to play in the 5GHz UNii channels that require dynamic frequency selection, they will automatically jump to an open DFS channel when a conflict occurs, without any gaps in the surround sound audio.
The Wireless Speaker And Audio Association periodically meets with our Advisory Board and other industry leaders who basically set the standards in home theater. Our goal is to play well with everyone, to set a new standard for high quality wireless audio in the home theater, not limited to any manufacturer.
Last, but certainly not least, consumers and value added resellers should expect to see some additional product announcements at the upcoming CEDIA and CES shows, including televisions that include a WiSA compliant wireless transmitter. Stay tuned!
