Logitech Inches Closer to Home Theater, Bows ‘Living Room’ Speaker System

Logitech, which claims a 97 percent share of the 5.1-channel multimedia speaker market, continues to blur the lines between computer and home entertainment audio. The company is replacing its Z500W 5.1-channel surround-sound speaker system with a digitally driven model due in stores at the end of the month, regional product manager Alan Smith told us at a media briefing Tuesday in New York.

Despite positioning the new Z906 5.1-channel system ($399) as a product “for the living room,” the powered speaker system will be sold in the computer section at retail, Smith said. The predecessor product, too, was sold in the computer aisle, “but we found it often ended up in the living room,” Smith said, so engineers added a S/PDIF optical input to make it more home theater-friendly for Blu-ray players, DVRs or and game players. The system doesn’t have HDMI, however.

Unlike the previous model, the Z906 packs a Class D amplifier, which offers consumers the benefit of more-efficient operation but was designed out of a need to meet new European energy requirements for electronics in standby mode, Smith told us. The system uses 1/2 watt in standby mode and also is impervious to fluctuations in AC power, an issue that occurred with analog amplifiers, causing the system to borrow power from other channels when the subwoofer needed more juice for dynamic soundtracks.

While some home-theater-in-a-box systems from hi-fi makers are going wireless, Logitech isn’t taking that route with the Z906 due to cost, Smith said. The company offered wireless rear speakers a few years ago but wanted to deliver more power than it could provide in that wireless design and abandoned wireless at the time. “We're constantly looking at other possibilities, but the challenge is how to do it in a $400 product,” Smith said. “When you have to put in two radios and discrete amps for each speaker, with power supplies, that adds more money so something else has to give.” But “without question, the company has a desire to have wireless speakers,” he said.

The Z906 is branded THX for near-field computer sound, meaning the speakers can handle sound-pressure levels of 85 dB in movie mode where the listener is positioned 28 inches from the speakers, Smith told us. Home theater speakers, in contrast, have to tip the SPL needle at 105dB at a listening distance of five to six feet, he said. Getting speakers THX-approved is roughly a one-year “back-and-forth process” where speaker designers work on about 400 tests, including off-axis response where minimum roll-off is within 30 percent, he said. THX gets a royalty for the branding used on certified products but Smith wouldn’t disclose the fee. “People recognize THX,” he said. “It provides validation to a product so we feel it’s worth it."

THX added Logitech to its roster of THX Media Director partners earlier this month. The technology provides consumers with “optimized viewing and listening experiences without a constant requirement to adjust playback settings,” according to THX, which said future-gen Logitech products will be able to interact with THX Media Director metadata encoded into Blu-ray discs and streaming media content. Certified products will be able to automatically select audio and video settings determined by artists who created the original content, THX said.

Logitech also said it has added a free Android application for its Squeezebox Touch media streaming device. An iPhone app is in the works but Apple requires a 4-6-week “mystery” approval process before a control app is approved, Smith said. “Anyone can put up an app for Android,” on the other hand, because “no one has to bless it,” he said. That has its drawbacks, he said: “Who knows whether it will work or not?”

The proliferation of smartphones and apps is changing the landscape for CE products, making some no longer viable in an app-driven world. Logitech is phasing out its $399 Squeezebox Duet network music system, Smith told us, “because products like that are becoming obsolete with the rise of the smartphone,” he said. The Duet comes with an expensive 2.4-inch color LCD handheld remote, but Logitech’s 802.11n Touch ($299), paired with its own remote or a smartphone app, is a more advanced, and less expensive solution. Looking ahead, Smith envisions a time when there’s no reason to include remote controls for some products based on a cost-versus-system calculation. Control apps have become “a natural extension of the environment,” Smith said. “They're the way everything is going,” he said.

The Android app will control any Logitech Squeezebox product, Smith said. “If you have four or five around the house, you can control them all from the app,” he said. There’s virtually no latency so consumers don’t have to worry about delays as they move from room to room, he said. The theoretical limit for system management using an app is 20 units, he said, pushing control capability into affordable custom electronics territory. “We've dabbled in the custom space and definitely have an interest in it,” Smith said. With multi-room entertainment headed away from the analog world and toward IP-based systems, installers need to be ready, he said. “If you're in custom installation and you can’t do networking, you're not long for the world,” he said. “Everything’s streaming now. Whether it’s Internet-based or server-based music, everything is Ethernet."

Logitech also showed a $149 USB camera with Panasonic’s Viera Connect TVs that’s due in stores at the end of April. Skype software for the camera is included with Viera Connect TVs, and the camera mounts to the top of most flat-panel TVs using a clamp. The camera will work with other TVs but is only “fully qualified” to work with Panasonic models, according to Joerg Tewes, Logitech general manager for webcams. The company expanded the viewing angle to 78 degrees corner to corner, beyond that of typical PC webcams, to accommodate a family of four sitting on a couch, Tewes said. The camera will be sold separately without joint merchandising, but Tewes said there’s “bundling potential” in the future.