Samsung Puts Spotlight on Its Shape Multiroom Audio for 2014 Debuts
Samsung is headed into 2014 with a multi-pronged strategy for home audio based on multiroom audio, TV sound, Bluetooth speakers and home theater, said Jim Kiczek, director-digital audio and video, on a pre-CES audio briefing webcast. The company plans to exploit market opportunities in soundbars and wireless audio, as consumers trend toward soundbars and away from 5.1 and 7.1 home-theater-in-a-box systems and to Bluetooth speakers at the expense of docking systems, Kiczek said.
Citing NPD data, Kiczek said Samsung will flesh out its Shape ecosystem to feed growing demand for the multiroom speaker market that’s projected to grow from 1.2 million units worldwide last year to 2.3 million in 2014. The U.S. market is projected to have been 500,000 units in 2013, doubling to 1 million this year, he said. As a result, Samsung will expand its Shape wireless audio ecosystem in 2014 with a smaller speaker, a connectivity module for legacy audio products and Shape functionality built into a soundbar, a Blu-ray player and Blu-ray home theater systems, Kiczek said.
Among the new Shape products for 2014, Samsung’s Multiroom Link will enable products such as turntables and AV receivers to connect wirelessly to a multiroom Shape system that’s controllable by a smartphone or tablet app, Kiczek said. Samsung added the M5 speaker that’s a quarter the size of the M7 speaker that launched the line last fall, Kiczek said. Multiple Shape speakers can be used to create a wireless home theater system, he said. Shape supports music services including Amazon Cloud Player, Pandora, Rhapsody and TuneIn Radio, with new services to be announced in Q1, Kiczek said.
A new feature in the Samsung line for 2014 is Bluetooth Power On, which allows consumers to power up and listen to a paired device such as a soundbar by tapping a button in a smartphone app rather than physically turning on the component from a remote control or a power button on the device, Kiczek said.
To address another surging area in home audio -- soundbars -- Samsung will add five SKUs in 2014 and carry over the HW-F850 soundbar with wireless subwoofer and near-field communications and the HW-F355 soundbar with wired subwoofer, Kiczek said. Among the new models are the H750 Bluetooth model that’s compatible with the Shape multiroom system and the H450 with Bluetooth Power On and Wireless HD. The HW-H600, meanwhile, is a sound base that can support a TV up to 55-inches and packs four woofers, two midrange drivers and a pair of tweeters, he said. In the 1.4-inch-tall HW-H600, sound emanates from a thin slit that’s tilted upward to anchor dialogue to the center of the screen, he said.
In its home theater system line, Samsung will add four models and carry over the flagship HT-F9730W 7.1-channel Blu-ray AV system with a vacuum tube amplifier, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, Kiczek said. New in 2014 is the vacuum tube-based 7.1-channel HT-H7730WM Blu-ray AV system that’s convertible to a virtual 9.1-channel system through the DTS Neo: Fusion codec, according to a news release.
Samsung launched the Giga line of sound systems last spring and is expanding the lineup this year, Kiczek said. Consumers have been using Giga systems as portable systems, Samsung found, so for the 2014 line, the company designed the receiver into one of the speakers to make a manageable two-component system rather than two speakers with a separate receiver, Kiczek said. The company also added handles to the front and sides of the speakers along with wheels to make the Giga systems easier to transport, he said. At the top end, Samsung pumped in more output power, a beefy 3400 watts, Kiczek said, giving the flagship HS9000 a potential decibel level of 105 dB. Prices and availability will be announced later, the company said.