Startup Enclave Audio bowed its premier product at CES, a 5.1-channel home theater system certified as WiSA (Wireless Speaker and Audio)-compliant. The system is expected to be available in May at a suggested retail price of $1,199, a spokesman told us. The WiSA Association announced at CES six new members: SmartAudio, a division of TVLogic, which will offer WiSA products under the Aurender brand name; Digital TV Labs; Gold Peak Electronics; LG Innotek; Danish speaker manufacturer Vifa; and WASP Audio, a U.S.-based wireless audio company.

Bluetooth audio will be a hot item at CES 2015, launching in a variety of configurations. Lifestyle audio company ION Audio will bow a Bluetooth turntable, Air LP, that uses analog-to-digital conversion via USB to turn cuts into digital files on a PC or Mac, the company said. The turntable supports 33-1/3, 45 and 78 rpm vinyl recordings. Price of the turntable is $149, or $179 when paired with Bluetooth speakers, the company said, with availability Q1. The Road King 200-watt stereo speaker system ($399, Q1), with rechargeable battery, has a rugged design, making it well-suited for outdoor parties and tailgating, ION said. The Road King streams music from any Bluetooth device and includes an AM/FM radio. ION will also show at CES its combination Bluetooth speakers and lighting systems, including Block Party Live ($249) and Flash Cube ($129), it said. Nyne, from parent company Boss, will unveil at CES three water-resistant Bluetooth 4.0 speakers. The Edge ($159) and Verge ($119) are designed for use on bikes and come with a handlebar mount and built-in LED lamp with strobe safety settings for use in low light. The Rock, designed for outdoor parties, has a 50-watt power rating, two tweeters and a woofer, near-field communications, a microphone and a rechargeable battery with a 12-hour operating rating. Altec Lansing also is introducing at CES Bluetooth speakers for parties. The Sphere 360 blasts omnidirectional sound along with LED light shows, the company said. Altec Lansing also will take the wraps off the Immerse Bluetooth earphones, which it said are submersible, antimicrobial earphones for hands-free use with a smartphone. The company also will bow the Altec BoomJacket, an all-weather Bluetooth speaker said to run for 40 hours on a charge.

The Bellini Room 2001, Level 2, in the Venetian Hotel will be home to a half-dozen panels on High-Res Audio at CES next week. A key attraction there will be rock icon Neil Young, who will hold a special press briefing on HRA on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. Young also will share his passion for hi-res music in a CES SuperSession on Wednesday at 10:15 a.m. in room N257 at the Las Vegas Convention Center's North Hall. "Hi-Res for Mobile Lifestyles,” kicks off the Hi-Res Audio sessions 11-11:45 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 6. Panelists include Owen Kwon, president, Astell & Kern; Alex Rosson, CEO, Audeze; Claude Schmidt, product manager, Sony; and Steve Silberman, vice president-development, AudioQuest. “Meet the Hi-Res Music Creators,” on Tuesday, 2:15-3 p.m., includes moderator Maureen Droney, managing director, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Producers & Engineers Wing; producer and audio engineer Ryan Ulyate; Leslie Ann Jones, director-music recording and scoring, Skywalker Sound; Rob Friedrich, producer and engineer, Five/Four Productions; Allen Sides, producer and engineer, Ocean Way Studios; and Mark Waldrep, founder, AIX Records. Wednesday panels begin with “Hi-Res Audio: Breaking the Barriers," 11-11:45 a.m., with panelists David Steven, managing director, dCS Ltd.; Bob Stuart, chairman, Meridian Audio; Ted Smith, audio engineer, PS Audio; Aaron Levine, marketing manager, Sony; and Ray Kimber, president, Kimber Kable. The Wednesday afternoon panel, "The New Business of Hi-Res Music," will be 2:15-3 p.m., and includes Norman Chesky, president, HDtracks; Marc Sheforgen, chief operating officer, Acoustic Sounds; Mark Piibe, executive vice president, Global Business, Sony Music; Howie Singer, chief technology strategist, Warner Music; and Jim Belcher, vice president-technology and production, Universal Music. On Thursday, “Hi-Res Audio: The Retail Perspective,” 11-11:45 a.m., will include panelists Phil Murray, marketing manager, ListenUp; Hugh Fountain, central operations manager, Music Lovers Audio; David Pidgeon, CEO, Starpower Home Entertainment; and Brian Hudkins, CEO, Gramophone. The CES Power Panel, 2:15-3 p.m., Thursday, includes Robert Heiblim, vice chairman, CEA audio division board, and Maureen Droney, managing director, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Producers & Engineers Wing.

DTS made its next-gen object-based codec official, though details were sketchy in a news release issued Tuesday. The audio equipment company said DTS:X will be its next-generation object-based codec technology and is the successor to DTS-HD Master Audio. DTS:X “delivers the ultimate in flexibility, immersion and interactivity to listeners of all forms of entertainment,” the company said. The official launch of DTS:X is planned for March, DTS said. While it was short on specifics, the company did cite manufacturers that have agreed to launch products supporting DTS:X in 2015 -- which it called “nearly 90 percent of the home AV receiver and surround processor market” -- including Anthem, Denon, Integra, Krell, Marantz, McIntosh, Onkyo, Outlaw Audio, Pioneer, Steinway Lyngdorf, Theta Digital, Trinnov Audio and Yamaha. Additional manufacturer partners will be announced in the coming months, DTS said. It said DTS:X solutions “are also available for leading 2015 AV receiver silicon platforms,” including Cirrus Logic, Analog Devices and Texas Instruments. The company didn’t immediately respond to a question on plans for DTS:X demonstrations at CES.

DTS added Google’s Songza to the roster of streaming music services for its Play-Fi music platform, it said Monday. Play-Fi also offers music streaming from Deezer, Pandora, SiriusXM and others. Hardware brands with Play-Fi systems include Definitive Technologies, Phorus, Polk Audio and Wren Sound.

Revox, exhibiting for the first time at CES, will demo its 24 bit/192 kHz Joy network receivers in Suite 35-203 of the Venetian Hotel. The high-res receivers include AptX Bluetooth and have on-board access to music services from Pandora, Spotify and Tidal, the company said.

Audio-Technica is promising a pair of free SonicSport fitness headphones worth up to $59.95 at retail while supplies last to showgoers who stop by the company’s CES booth and take in a product demonstration, the company said Monday. The company is using CES to introduce four new models of “stay-in-place” SonicSport headphones, it said.

LG plans to use CES to demonstrate its first battery-powered portable Wi-Fi speaker, the NP8350, plus three more Wi-Fi speakers and three new upgraded Wi-Fi soundbars, the company said. The speakers are designed to be compatible with Android and iOS devices and allow consumers to build a custom home audio systems that can be controlled through LG's Music Flow mobile app. Unlike other Bluetooth speakers, streaming to a Music Flow Wi-Fi Series speaker from a smartphone continues uninterrupted when receiving a call, LG said. In “home cinema mode,” users can wirelessly connect two Music Flow speakers to the Wi-Fi soundbar as rear left and right channels, it said. Each speaker can be individually set to match the desired environment based on the speaker's position, it said. An “auto music play” feature gives LG Music Flow the ability to deliver a user experience “that maximizes convenience for listeners on the go,” it said. Music on a smartphone will automatically begin playing on a Music Flow Wi-Fi speaker when the phone comes within one foot, it said. “So a user could be listening to music on headphones on the subway ride home but the music will begin playing automatically from the living room Wi-Fi Sound Bar when the user enters the living room.” LG said it thinks the products in its Music Flow Wi-Fi Series epitomize “what a smart audio system should be capable of in the 21st century."

Streaming audio service Spreaker said it integrated its podcast and online radio content with Sonos, enabling Sonos users to wirelessly stream podcasts to any room. Francesco Baschieri, Spreaker CEO, said it's the “golden age of podcasting,” and the development with Sonos elevates the sound quality of its content to a new level.

Jubilant Russound executives announced the addition of worldwide music service Spotify to the company’s streaming music lineup, on a teleconference with journalists Friday. Putting together a direct licensing deal with Spotify has been “like pulling teeth” for a company like Russound that doesn't have the unit volume to turn heads at streaming companies used to dealing with million-unit smartphone volumes, Russound Product Marketing Manager Colin Clark said. “It’s not the fun part of my day by any stretch of the imagination to deal with the providers,” Clark said, saying “they’re not motivated for specialty channels. They’re motivated by volume, so working with them is difficult.” The “long, drawn out political process” of winning Spotify as a provider lasted for nine months to a year, he said. Russound also offers Pandora and SiriusXM streaming music services, along with Internet radio, but it doesn’t plan to “overwhelm” customers with a long list of streaming music choices, Clark said. “I definitely don’t want to have every service out there,” he said. “We’d need to hire a staff of 20 more people and 50 more software engineers” to support additional services, Clark said, calling that a "never-ending battle.” Beyond a point, consumers “don’t know what to choose from” when given too many options, he said. The decision to add Spotify came from dealer feedback from customers, he said. Following an installer-initiated firmware update next month, Spotify Connect will be available on Russound's XStream X5 and DMS-3.1 digital media streamer and is a feature of the upcoming MCA-88X eight-source, eight-zone controller, the company said. Clark emphasized that high-resolution 24-bit/192kHz resolution is one of the “key success factors” for the company’s streaming products.