Samsung joined the ranks of companies trying...

Samsung joined the ranks of companies trying to grab a slice of the Sonos pie when it launched this week the Shape wireless multi-room audio system that goes on sale Oct. 13. The company chose the product name Shape for the powered speaker’s triangular configuration designed for placement in a corner, credenza or mounted to a wall and for the “emotional meaning” of how music has shaped consumers’ lives, Jim Kiczek, director of digital audio and video, told us during a press meeting in New York. Samsung is getting into the multi-room music category now because it’s one of the fastest-growing segments of the CE market, Kiczek said, and the product offers consumers a way to share music from smartphones in various rooms in the house. Shape includes the WAM750 speaker ($399 each), which can be used alone as a Bluetooth music system when paired with a smartphone, and it can be expanded into a multi-room audio system using the WAM250 Wi-Fi Hub ($49) and additional speakers. In a single-room setup, the speaker can pair to a phone using Bluetooth with NFC functionality, Kiczek noted. To create a multi-room system, consumers connect the Hub to a home’s router via ethernet cable and the system uses a multi-channel mesh networking technology to prevent network traffic interference by automatically securing clear audio data paths, according to product literature. The Hub supports dual-band Wi-Fi in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, Kiczek said. At launch, the system will support Rhapsody, Pandora, TuneIn Radio and Amazon Cloud Player and will stream music from any DLNA-compatible device as long as the files are sharable, he said, with multiple sources available to multiple rooms. The company expects to announce additional service partners in the future. A feature unique to Samsung’s music system is the ability to drag and drop a song into a room with a speaker using an Android or iPhone app, Kiczek demonstrated. The smartphone apps will be available at launch, he said, and apps for tablets will be available “shortly after.” Samsung is tying in its TVs to the system via Bluetooth as well, allowing consumers to listen to what’s playing on TV wirelessly via Bluetooth in the same room through a Shape speaker, Kiczek said. The products will be available at national retailers, at regional chains and online, he said.