WiSA - The Wireless Home Theater
One of the great enablers of the modern home theater explosion was the advent of multi-channel digital audio. Companies like Dolby, DTS and THX provided the ability to incorporate these multi-channel audio streams into DVD, then Blu-Ray media. Even a lot of broadcast and streaming sources support multi-channel audio.
We often refer to these multi-channel streams by the X.Y standard with 5.1 and 7.2 being two of the most popular. With 5.1 - you have separate audio channels for front left, center and right speakers, then rear or surround left & right speakers, then the .1 or Bass channel via a Subwoofer. 7.2 - adds left & right "presence" speakers along with a 2nd subwoofer.
This multi-channel sound capability is what provides the "theater" experience. Okay cool - so now I have this great multi-channel audio - so now I need to figure out how to place all the speakers to make it work.
The challenge for many folks was getting the proper wiring to support getting the analog signal from their AV Receiver or Amplifier to the speakers (especially the rear and presence ones). This often meant punching through walls, drilling, running cable, mounts, etc, etc. Any of you who've been there know exactly what I am describing.
Combine the wiring requirement with proper placement for the true surround experience and you often had something that may have sounded great - but was awful from a room aesthetics standpoint.
To try and address that problem, some folks would turn to dedicated "home theater" rooms and built in or mounted speakers. But that approach was often expensive and if you made the built in speaker choice you had to really careful with wall design, insulation and encasing to insure you didn't just make an expensive echo chamber. Plus any replacements or upgrades may have just required you to re-open the wall.
Speaker & Audio manufacturers recognized this as a problem and also wanted to provide this multi-channel capability to a broader audience.
So first we started to see the advent of the sound bar or "surround" bar. These designs incorporate at a minimum the front left, center and right speakers and in some cases also the rear left & right into a single enclosure that would sit or mount under your TV. And even though some fancy signal processing was done to provide the "surround" channels via signal delay/reflection it isn't optimal.
And while there have been attempts at wireless rear speakers and/or subwoofers - they often just didn't sound as good and weren't as reliable as good old fashioned wired speakers since they often used the same 2.4Ghz wireless bands as WiFi and ran into conflicts.
In 2011, a group of Speaker & Audio manufacturers got together to form the Wireless Speaker and Audio Association (WiSA). As with any technology alliance the goal was to share development costs and develop a "standard" by which speakers adhering to the standard provide an expected result. Members include Bang and Olufsen, Definitive, Paradigm, Polk Audio and others.
The WiSA approach is unique in that is uses the 5.2 to 5.8Ghz UNII radio spectrum - so radio signals avoid potential conflicts with other common radio frequencies found in homes like 2.4 or 5Ghz Wifi or 6.2Ghz phones.
Starting in 2013 some of these WiSA products started coming to market and one in fact recently won the 2016 CES Innovation award. The Klipsch Reference Premiere HD Wireless speakers are a selection of tower, bookshelf, center and subwoofer models that leverage the WiSA standard.
The Klipsch implementation does NOT need a traditional AV Receiver or Amplifier. Instead this system uses something called the HD Control Center.
This Control Center accepts 4 x HDMI, 2 x Optical/Coax or 1 x Analog inputs, performs all of the proper channel de-coding, then transmits to the speakers. Each speaker is self powered - meaning it needs to be plugged in. For example the RP-440WF tower floor speaker has it's own 125W amplifier - that can peak to 250W.
And setup is extremely easy - you plug the speaker in - press what channel the speaker is going to play on a panel on the back and your done.
So even is a traditional square or rectangular room there are often already AC Power outlets where you might locate your speakers. Even in larger rooms some have floor outlets that you can use. Now sure - you will still see a power cord, but it's a great improvement since you are not having to route wires back to a centralized receiver or amp.
Today this solution is not cheap. Based on the Klipsch Reference line a 5.1 configuration with 2 tower, 1 center, 2 bookshelf rear and 1 subwoofer along with the control center will set you back over $5,000 and a 7.2 configuration over $6,200. But remember this is the Reference line - so it includes things like cerametallic cones and titanium tweeters - all very high end stuff.
Other members of association have also produced offerings using this new standard at varying price points.
Bottom line is this - with WiSA based systems having a wireless high end audio experience is now a reality. It can avoid a lot of cost and headaches in creating a home theater experience with true multi-channel audio.
We often refer to these multi-channel streams by the X.Y standard with 5.1 and 7.2 being two of the most popular. With 5.1 - you have separate audio channels for front left, center and right speakers, then rear or surround left & right speakers, then the .1 or Bass channel via a Subwoofer. 7.2 - adds left & right "presence" speakers along with a 2nd subwoofer.
This multi-channel sound capability is what provides the "theater" experience. Okay cool - so now I have this great multi-channel audio - so now I need to figure out how to place all the speakers to make it work.
The challenge for many folks was getting the proper wiring to support getting the analog signal from their AV Receiver or Amplifier to the speakers (especially the rear and presence ones). This often meant punching through walls, drilling, running cable, mounts, etc, etc. Any of you who've been there know exactly what I am describing.
Combine the wiring requirement with proper placement for the true surround experience and you often had something that may have sounded great - but was awful from a room aesthetics standpoint.
To try and address that problem, some folks would turn to dedicated "home theater" rooms and built in or mounted speakers. But that approach was often expensive and if you made the built in speaker choice you had to really careful with wall design, insulation and encasing to insure you didn't just make an expensive echo chamber. Plus any replacements or upgrades may have just required you to re-open the wall.
Speaker & Audio manufacturers recognized this as a problem and also wanted to provide this multi-channel capability to a broader audience.
So first we started to see the advent of the sound bar or "surround" bar. These designs incorporate at a minimum the front left, center and right speakers and in some cases also the rear left & right into a single enclosure that would sit or mount under your TV. And even though some fancy signal processing was done to provide the "surround" channels via signal delay/reflection it isn't optimal.
And while there have been attempts at wireless rear speakers and/or subwoofers - they often just didn't sound as good and weren't as reliable as good old fashioned wired speakers since they often used the same 2.4Ghz wireless bands as WiFi and ran into conflicts.
In 2011, a group of Speaker & Audio manufacturers got together to form the Wireless Speaker and Audio Association (WiSA). As with any technology alliance the goal was to share development costs and develop a "standard" by which speakers adhering to the standard provide an expected result. Members include Bang and Olufsen, Definitive, Paradigm, Polk Audio and others.
The WiSA approach is unique in that is uses the 5.2 to 5.8Ghz UNII radio spectrum - so radio signals avoid potential conflicts with other common radio frequencies found in homes like 2.4 or 5Ghz Wifi or 6.2Ghz phones.
The Klipsch implementation does NOT need a traditional AV Receiver or Amplifier. Instead this system uses something called the HD Control Center.
This Control Center accepts 4 x HDMI, 2 x Optical/Coax or 1 x Analog inputs, performs all of the proper channel de-coding, then transmits to the speakers. Each speaker is self powered - meaning it needs to be plugged in. For example the RP-440WF tower floor speaker has it's own 125W amplifier - that can peak to 250W.
And setup is extremely easy - you plug the speaker in - press what channel the speaker is going to play on a panel on the back and your done.
So even is a traditional square or rectangular room there are often already AC Power outlets where you might locate your speakers. Even in larger rooms some have floor outlets that you can use. Now sure - you will still see a power cord, but it's a great improvement since you are not having to route wires back to a centralized receiver or amp.
Today this solution is not cheap. Based on the Klipsch Reference line a 5.1 configuration with 2 tower, 1 center, 2 bookshelf rear and 1 subwoofer along with the control center will set you back over $5,000 and a 7.2 configuration over $6,200. But remember this is the Reference line - so it includes things like cerametallic cones and titanium tweeters - all very high end stuff.
Other members of association have also produced offerings using this new standard at varying price points.
Bottom line is this - with WiSA based systems having a wireless high end audio experience is now a reality. It can avoid a lot of cost and headaches in creating a home theater experience with true multi-channel audio.
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