Korus Wireless Speakers Being Positioned Between Bluetooth and Sonos

Nortek custom electronics subsidiary Core Brands launched Korus, a wireless speaker system that it’s billing as a “premium alternative” to Bluetooth- and AirPlay-based playback devices and to the Sonos system. Korus uses the SKAA wireless audio protocol, which the company said improves on other wireless audio technologies because it provides “superior signal connections with near zero latency.”

It’s Nortek’s first foray into the mainstream consumer space through its Core Brands unit, and the company plans to be in brick-and-mortar stores and online this fall, Brett Faulk, vice president-product development, told us on a press swing in New York. The company is in talks with retailers but “nothing is locked in yet,” Faulk said. The product will also be available to Core Brands’ existing retailers, he said. It’s likely to be sold online before hitting stores, including at the company website, www.KorusSound.com, Faulk said. Korus faces a tough challenge in trying to compete with much smaller Bluetooth-based speakers for portable audio and the entrenched Sonos multi-room system for reputation.

Commenting on how its existing dealer base feels about the company heading mass market, response has been “pretty positive,” Faulk said. “I think everybody recognizes that the adoption of wireless speakers is going to continue to grow.” The wireless product “may evolve into some aspect of the custom install market,” he said. “We'll have to see.”

Pricing is competitive with the Sonos system, which has become the de facto standard for wireless multi-room audio systems for both consumers and custom installers. The New York Times estimated Sonos sales at more than $250 million in 2011. While companies have brought out multi-room wireless audio products positioned as “Sonos killers,” none has been able to establish the presence Sonos owns in the market to date. Faulk maintained that Korus is not “directly a Sonos killer,” positioning it instead between portable Bluetooth speakers and Sonos, which creates its own proprietary mesh network within a Wi-Fi network in the home.

Faulk said Bluetooth can be “unreliable at times” because it wasn’t designed for wireless audio but was “morphed and stretched and evolved over time” to do different things including audio. Sonos is used primarily as a fixed solution tied to a router, he said, and Korus is designed to be “portable.” Korus is also positioning its speakers as solutions for the audio accompanying movies and games, although separating the sound from the display is less than ideal for a unified playback experience.

We found it unlikely that consumers would consider the boom box-sized Korus V600 -- at 11 pounds -- a portable product compared with, say, Philips’ upcoming $49 grenade-sized SoundShooter Bluetooth speaker. Korus’s $399 portable speaker has a handle and runs on six heavy “D” batteries, which can run for 90 hours, according to Faulk. It also has an AC power cord. The smaller, and lighter, V400 ($299) doesn’t include a battery-power option, he said.

Korus operates by means of transmitter dongles that attach to an iOS device through Lightning and 30-pin connectors or to PCs through a USB connector. Faulk said early Bluetooth devices also required an external accessory. A micro USB connector for Android devices will be available later, Faulk said. On whether SKAA will someday be integrated on a chip in the Bluetooth and AirPlay models, Faulk said, “It makes a lot of sense.” We asked about concerns over consumer pushback to having to use a dongle, which Korus calls a “baton,” when there are integrated Bluetooth solutions available, and he told us a recent survey of 600 consumers indicated “overwhelmingly positive feedback” to the Korus approach. The company’s USB power cord doubles as a dongle holder.

To set up the system, users attach the dongle to an iPhone or iPad, and then press a button on the top of the unit to wirelessly connect the iOS device to the speaker. Faulk said ease of setup is a primary differentiator from Bluetooth products that have to be paired to a smartphone. SKAA transmits over the crowded 2.4 GHz radio band and uses a Walking Frequency Diversity frequency-hopping protocol to avoid interference and prevent “drops and pops” that occur in the Bluetooth environment, he said. The latency between the audio source and speaker is 40 milliseconds, versus 120 milliseconds for Bluetooth, according to literature. Range, he said, is about 65 feet, and SKAA supports up to four speakers.

Korus speakers will be available as standalone units and in bundles with three batons (30-pin and Lightning connectors for iOS devices and a full-size USB) and two USB power cords, Faulk said. The bundled versions carry a $49 premium, and accessory batons will be priced $49 each, he said.