WiSA Adds Philips Brand as It Looks to Create Age of 'Speakerless TVs'
Philips, marketed by TP Vision in most world markets outside North America, is the seventh TV brand announced as WiSA-ready, as the Wireless Speaker and Audio Association ramps for what it sees as the coming age of “speakerless” TVs.
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TVs “that rely solely on external audio” are expected to hit the market next year, WiSA President Tony Ostrom told us in a Monday briefing previewing Tuesday’s Philips announcement, When WiSA-ready speakerless TVs connect with a WiSA USB transmitter, they will “seamlessly” deliver immersive audio to WiSA-certified sound bars and speaker systems with 2.0- to 5.1-channel configurations, said Ostrom.
The association predicts 20 million WiSA-ready TVs will be on the market worldwide in 2020, but Ostrom called that a conservative forecast. In addition to LG, the first TV maker to launch WiSA-ready sets (see 1907250048), and Philips-branded sets from TP Vision, models are due out from brands including Bang & Olufsen, Sharp, Toshiba, TCL and Fengmi.
WiSA, which has struggled to take hold since Aperion Audio introduced the wireless speaker technology in 2012, is hoping the poor sound quality of flat-panel TVs will be the catalyst that finally steers consumers to the WiSA world. The interest of TV and speaker companies -- and support of Dolby -- “will help that,” he said. “Gotta get the word back out, and we’re trying to work with the right guys to do that because there’s so much great immersive content.”
With the proliferation of streaming services, said Ostrom, “where does it land? Does it land on TV speakers, a tiny sound bar, or does it land on something worthy?” Responding to our question about the trend away from multi-speaker home theater setups, he said the simplicity of sound bars will address that market segment.
WiSA’s hope is that by exposing the mainstream customer to “what you can do with a similarly priced -- or maybe for a few hundred dollars more -- you can get an immersive, 5.1- or better sound system.” He said customers have to plug each WiSA speaker into the wall but without need for speaker wire or an AV receiver. “The whole thing takes less than 20 minutes to set up” with the help of the user interface on a WiSA-ready TV, he said.
WiSA believes the ratio of sound bars bought with TVs “is still very good,” said Ostrom, and with price points of sound bars growing, “it shows us that people still want a better sound experience … but they don’t want complexity." Whatever shows consumers binge-watch, “you’re going to want a better sound system for,” he said.
The WiSA website shows 18 speaker SKUs from B&O, Enclave, Harman Kardon, Klipsch and Platin. Ostrom told us GoldenEar Technologies has “one in the works.” GoldenEar co-founder Sandy Gross emailed us Tuesday his company is incorporating WiSA in its DigitalAktiv 3 high-end self-streaming bookshelf loudspeaker, using WiSA to connect the two speakers when used as a stereo pair. "We like WiSA because it is extremely low distortion and low latency," said Gross, saying Golden Ear expects to ship the DA 3 in Q3 2020. With WiSA, the DA 3 "will allow us to reach a new group of consumers looking for state-of-the-art sound quality combined with lifestyle friendly simplicity."
Speaker companies are planning to “hard- or soft-bundle” the WiSA USB transmitter with their systems, Ostrom said: a hard bundle has the transmitter in the box; a soft bundle would be determined by the retailer at a price that includes a transmitter and speaker, he said. “Because there will be more than one transmitter, some retailers may choose to let the consumer decide what they want.”
Transmitters will range $49-$199, according to feature set, said Ostrom, comparing them to the AV receivers they’re designed to replace. A simple transmitter would send eight channels of audio to the individual speakers; the Axiim Link transmitter, available now, is also Xbox-certified and comes with a mobile app with volume control, bass management and equalization control. High-end speaker brands have shown interest in pairing with a full-featured transmitter with control capability, he said.
Ostrom called the additional cost for the WiSA receiver inside a speaker “fairly minimal” for manufacturers: “If they’re already powering the speaker ... then adding the wireless receiver is a pretty minimal chunk of that equation.”