Wireless Multiroom Audio Spiking On Consumer Acceptance of Cloud-Based Music

Definitive Technology capped an active week in the wireless audio market Friday with the announcement that its Play-Fi-based Wireless Music System will be available for pre-order on Wednesday from the company’s website, at BestBuy.com, Crutchfield.com and FutureShop.ca and available for purchase beginning Oct. 5. The Definitive system uses DTS’s Play-Fi to stream music stored on mobile devices or a PC over Wi-Fi to compatible speakers throughout the home. Definitive listed Pandora and Spotify as early content providers.

Like CSR with its SyncLock technology, DTS and partner companies including Definitive Technology hope to build an ecosystem where compatible speakers can work together, unlike Sonos, whose system only works with Sonos products. Users can “mix-and-match any Play-Fi-enabled audio product from any manufacturer on the same home network,” Definitive said, giving them “freedom to grow and personalize their wireless home music setup any way they choose.” Other Play-Fi-compatible products are available from Phorus, which developed Play-Fi and was purchased by DTS, and Wren Sound.

The Definitive Play-Fi lineup includes W7 ($399) and W9 ($699) speakers, the W Studio soundbar with subwoofer ($1,299), the W Adapt ($399) wireless adapter that connects existing audio system to Play-Fi speakers and the W Amp ($499), a wireless streaming amplifier to a consumer’s existing loudspeaker, delivering 150 watts per channel. EQ settings can be customized using an app, the company said.

Consumers’ growing comfort level with cloud-based audio is driving the new generation of wireless multiroom music systems, said audio companies we spoke to Friday. CSR announced last week that Braven will be the first company to offer a portable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi-based distributed audio system (http://bit.ly/1ql4LTf) using CSR’s VibeHub networked audio system, while Harman bowed its Wireless HD Audio System, based on Blackfire Research wireless media technology. Both companies have watched from the sidelines as Sonos established, and dominated, the category for a decade.

"A lot of companies are getting into the game now,” said Daniel Pye, Harman’s global product line manager, citing a balance between the state of consumer acceptance and opportunity. “Companies are realizing that the market is ready,” he said. Referring to Sonos’s years of experience creating a system known for quality and reliability, he said, “You don’t go up against that until you're ready."

Harman Kardon’s Quad speakers and wireless audio adapter, launching mid-October, are more than an extension of the brand’s audio line -- they are a foray into a Harman company platform for the connected home, said Richard Metcalfe, Harman director-product marketing. “It’s not just the launch of three speakers,” Metcalfe said. Omni speakers “are just the beginning,” and more products will follow in early 2015, he said.

Toward that end, Harman launched its global developer community that will make available software development kits for third parties to create APIs for Harman products. Harman is looking to the developer community to help drive and differentiate the Harman audio system by finding “applications we haven’t even thought of for our system,” Pye said. Metcalfe cited one application being discussed -- a paging function -- that will enable consumers to use their multiroom audio speakers to call family members in rooms throughout the house.

Harman chose Blackfire Research technology based on its broad approach to the connected home, Metcalfe said, saying Blackfire has applications for video streaming so “you could make the assumption that that would be one of the reasons why we would partner with them.”

Harman’s distributed wireless audio solution promises high-res 24-bit/96kHz performance, which positions it above Sonos or Bluetooth. At the outset the Omni system can work with up to eight speakers, Pye said, based on 802.11g Wi-Fi connectivity. As Wi-Fi data rates improve, the system will be able to expand to 16-20 speakers, he said. Quality of Service “was very important to us,” Pye said, saying many variables in a home can disrupt a wireless audio signal. “Blackfire was right at the top of technologies with the ability to adapt its Quality of Service to maintain a solid quality stream even under stressful situations,” he said.

On how Harman will position its solution against others announced last week -- including Qualcomm’s AllPlay, adopted by Panasonic and Monster, and CSR’s VibeHub that uses SyncLock technology -- Pye said Blackfire holds an advantage in synchronization. That’s important with stereo pairing and multichannel home theater applications, where “you need really tight synchronization,” he said. High-res audio is its other advantage “at the plumbing layer,” he said.

Harman worked with Blackfire to add its own special sauce, including a Link Button Speaker Control that allows users to bring music to a room by pressing a button on the speaker rather than having to go into an app, Pye said. Users can scroll through different songs playing through the Harman Kardon system using the button, and one long press creates a party mode in which all speakers play the same track. Party mode can be defeated at each speaker, Pye said.

Harman has inked content deals with three streaming music companies that will be announced at the October launch, but Pye declined to name them before then. Harman will be with the “key” content providers, he said, saying Harman already has an existing relationship with Spotify Connect on JBL Authentics wireless products announced at IFA.

CSR, meanwhile, is looking to build an ecosystem around its SyncLock technology that OEM Audivo, for one, has included in its multiroom audio system (AMAS), Chris Havell, CSR’s senior director-audio, told us. CSR announced the technology at CES and said last week that it will launch in Braven portable audio products in November, with many more brands’ speakers and electronics to follow.

CSR’s VibeHub platform is composed of a chipset and core software including SyncLock and AptX. Havell said. The company works with OEM module partners like Audivo, which customize technology for a particular brand with apps, input/output interfaces and other ways a company like Braven wants to differentiate its products, Havell said.

"A year from now, I'd like to be telling you that we have speakers out from multiple customers and that they all interwork using the SyncLock technology,” Havell said. CSR is working on interoperability between different suppliers in much the same way it currently offers testing of AptX technology among different manufacturers’ products, Havell said. Product possibilities range from simple speakers that play streaming music to high-end AV receivers where SyncLock is embedded in the receiver’s software, Havell said. CSR calls its technology “near CD quality” at a 16-bit, 48 kHz sampling rate.

CSR is pushing the interoperability of SyncLock as opposed to Sonos’s proprietary multiroom technology. “You're not rigidly fixed to buying from one supplier,” he said.