Summit Wireless Sees Entry-Level WiSA Driving Revenue Growth

Summit Wireless CEO Brett Moyer pushed product breadth and a low barrier to entry for the company’s Wireless Speaker and Audio Association home theater technology, on a Thursday virtual investor road show. Summit hopes to broaden the customer base for the 24-bit/96kHz surround-sound standard to the entry level, pitching ease of setup in a wireless configuration.

“With WiSA, all you have to do is plug speakers into a wall outlet, and the transmitters will find them and set up your system,” Moyer said, comparing that process to having to wire speakers to an AV receiver. Sub-$1,000 WiSA-certified home-theater-in-a-box systems from Enclave and Platin can be unboxed in 10 minutes and set up in five, he said. He cited Sonos and Bose sound bars with $799 retail prices, and said Enclave and Platin WiSA systems for $100-$200 more give “a complete home theater system that sounds better.”

Summit’s most recent annual report said the company’s road map includes proprietary software that will enable Wi-Fi to support multichannel audio for video applications, “while permitting Summit to leverage Wi-Fi’s lower chip and module cost structure.” Its Discovery module -- designed for entry-level home entertainment systems, including sound bars, TVs and subwoofers -- integrates software enabling a transceiver to keep up to four wireless audio channels synchronized in a room size up to 10 square meters.

Moyer is looking at the company’s ODM-sourced SoundSense transmitter to drive revenue growth. Though wireless audio transmitters are available on the market at varying price points, Summit believes the industry is missing a “low-cost, super-simple transmitter for Joe consumer.” SoundSend, introduced in December (see 2011300057) at $179, plugs into a smart TV with HDMI audio return channel and “automatically finds any WiSA-certified speakers in that room,” he said. The TV turns the system on and off. “You don’t need another remote,” he said, noting the transmitter has an accompanying app for customizing sound.

LG designed WiSA into its NanoCell OLED TVs beginning in 2019 as an audio differentiator. At the time, Moyer said (see 1907250048) the news had “driven a lot of traction” in the industry from other CE makers and retailers. Three other TV brands have announced or are selling WiSA-certified TVs: Bang & Olufsen, Hisense and Skyworth. Moyer said a fifth brand is due to hit the market “shortly," and it expects a sixth brand.

The high-res lossless audio technology launched at the mid-high end in Klipsch speaker systems in 2015, and was also adopted by Harman and Bang & Olufsen. WiSA can support up to eight audio channels in systems up to 7.1 channels, including 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos configurations, Moyer noted. Klipsch’s website lists its latest WiSA speakers, introduced in 2019, individually. At $799 a pair for the RW-51M monitors, $574 for a RW-34C center-channel speaker, and $689 for a RW-100SW subwoofer, a 7.1-channel system runs $3,660.

Moyer highlighted WiSA Wave, a marketing program launched by the association in August to boost awareness of the technology and drive sales. He outlined an ambitious goal, comparing WiSA to HDMI, saying, “How do we create a category at retail -- just like HDMI -- so that the consumer is asking for WiSA, so the retailer knows how to merchandise it.” Some 25 brands are selling WiSA products, though more are licensed.

Consumers who click on a WiSA-certified product ad on a mobile device are taken to a landing page with a family of WiSA products under the WiSA Wave program. “We can share the cost of one ad across multiple brands,” he said. Consumers can learn more on the site and shop for product. Based on the visit, WiSA can re-market other brands to consumers who clicked on an ad, he said.

WiSA plans to open a store on Amazon that aggregates all products available through Amazon that are WiSA-certified, Moyer said, including speakers, transmitters and TVs. Brands will be able to use a promotions section to market bundle offers, he said.

Responding to a question on market opportunity, Moyer gave a $100 million figure, based on a theoretical 5% conversion on the 40 million sound bars expected to be sold this year. Summit makes money from every WiSA module incorporated into a product sold “at whatever price,” he said. Q1 revenue for the quarter ended March 31 rose 181% year on year to $1.2 million. It forecast a 250% revenue bump for Q2.

The executive positioned WiSA home theater surround sound against the movie-going experience. “The industry and consumers have forgotten how good surround sound is,” he said, comparing what he called a 12-foot sound experience to a sound source that’s "3 feet away." The cost of an entry-level WiSA system, he said, “is like eight trips for a family to a movie theater.”