Work on Wireless Audio Standard – An association has been formed to promote a wireless audio technology for home theater systems to to oversee certification testing to ensure products with wireless technology interoperate with one another. The Wireless Speaker and Audio Association (WiSA) champions the Summit Wireless technology, which is used by direct-to-consumer Aperion Audio in Portland OR in their active 7.1 surround speaker system. Klipsch Group has already demonstrated a system using the technology, and it is expected other companies will join in marketing products incorporation the wireless technology. Summit is the wireless-chip maker who developed the technology when it was part of semiconductor developer Focus Enhancements. The technology is promoted as delivering easy setup and surround sound quality that is virtually indistinguishable from wire quality. It can be embedded in TVs, Blu-ray players, AV receivers, and hubs connecting to other AV components to send audio to wireless-enabled active speakers. It can also be incorporated into USB dongles that connect to TVs.
Summit Wireless promotes the technology as overcoming the sound quality, interference, latency and cost challenges associated with other wireless technologies for multichannel home theater setups. It simplifies setup by enabling automatic speaker-level, speaker-delay and phase adjustments that focus the audio sweet spot on any seating location chosen by the consumer within a 30 ft. by 30ft. room. The sound quality is maintained by transmitting uncompressed 96K/24-bit PCM over the air, using forward error correction to overcome latency problems, and using the congestion-free 5.1 GZ to 5.8 GHz U-NII band. It is a spectrum approved by the International Telecommunications Union for worldwide unlicensed use. Other WiSA technologies avoiding interference include spread-spectrum OFDM modulation, four antenna diversity tuning in speakers, dynamic frequency selection to hop to a channel without interference, and up to 10ms of audio interpolation to fill in lost packets. It automatically discovers speakers in the room and assigns channels to them, including front-height speakers in a 7.1-channel system. It can also produce a time-aligned soundfield for the listener by automatically adjusting delay and volume to a selected listening position.
Phoenix Gold Car Audio Launches – Phoenix Gold expands its autosound selection at the upcoming Las Vegas CES with its Elite series of high-end car audio amplifiers, subwoofers and speakers. Initial Elite products will include three amps, a subwoofer and a set of component speakers. The Elite 1, 2 & 4 amps are among the most powerful ever made by the company, with a mono amp rated at 2400 watts into 2 ohms. The amps feature Burr Brown op-amps to deliver ultra-low distortion and noise plus high speed and they come with an included remote bass knob. The Elite.12d subwoofer features dual 4-ohm design and 3-inch long-throw voice coil to handle 1600 watts RMS/3200-watts peak and is optimized for sealed or vented enclosures. Four models will be added to the SD series of miniature Class D amps to bring the range to seven. SD additions include two mono amps, one rated at 900 watts into 2 ohms and the other rated at 200 watts into 2 ohms. The company’s current OEM-integration amp/sub kit, designed for the 2010/11 Camaro, replaces the factory amp, plugs into the factory wiring harness, and retains all factory electronics features, including steering-wheel controls, heat unit functionality, Bluetooth, OnStar and chime functions.
Audio News, April 21, 2017
April 21, 2017 OPPO...