Multi-channel audio has become mainstream and vendors have developed many types of basic and more advanced technologies including wireless surround sound speakers, virtual surround sound to simplify the installation of home theater systems. I will review the most recent trends to see which products in fact work. I will also give some advice for picking the ideal components. Many of modern TVs will be set up as a multi-channel audio system. While historically TVs would have built-in stereo speakers, these days a number of external speakers are used to let the viewer experience surround sound. The most commonly used 5.1 surround sound format requires setting up a total of 6 loudspeakers. These are one center speaker, two front side speakers, two rear speakers and a subwoofer. The newer 7.1 standard increases this number to 8 by adding two extra side speakers.
Most of latest TVs will be installed as a multi-channel audio system. As historically TVs would come with built-in stereo loudspeakers, nowadays a number of external speakers are used to allow the viewer experience surround sound. In case of 5.1 surround, 6 speakers are utilized: center, left and right front, left and right rear and a subwoofer. Newer 7.1 systems need a total number of 8 speakers by adding 2 additional side speakers.
Thus installing a home theater has turn out to be fairly difficult and long speaker wire runs are often undesirable for aesthetic reasons. Suppliers have lately released new devices and technologies. These products were designed to help simplify the installation of home theater systems.
The advantage of this technology is that only a handful of loudspeakers are needed and no long speaker cord has to be run throughout the viewing environment. The disadvantage however is that each person will process audio in a different way because of the different form of each human ear. The signal processing of these virtual surround systems is based on a standard model which was calculated with a standard ear. However, virtual surround will not function equally well for each human.
Virtual surround avoids the remote speakers and simplifies the installation and also avoids long speaker cord runs. However, it also has a disadvantage. The form of each human's ear is slightly dissimilar. For that reason everybody processes sound differently. Because the signal processing is based on a standard human ear model, virtual surround will not function equally well for each person dependant upon how much the viewer varies from the standard model. An alternative method for simplifying home theater installations and eliminating long speaker wire runs is to employ wireless surround sound kits or wireless speakers. A wireless solution will usually incorporate a transmitter component that connects to the TV or source in addition to wireless amplifiers that will be connected to the remote speakers. This transmitter will typically come with line-level in addition to amplified loudspeaker inputs. Ideally it should come with a volume control to adjust it to the audio source.
Whilst some wireless speaker systems come with a wireless amplifier that connects to two speakers, other products offer separate wireless amplifiers for every speaker. The most basic wireless devices utilize FM broadcast. FM transmission is susceptible to noise and sound degradation. More sophisticated products make use of digital audio transmission to completely maintain the original audio. To be certain that all speakers are in sync in a multi-channel application, make certain that you choose a wireless system which has an audio latency of just a few milliseconds at most. If the latency is larger than 10 ms then there will be an echo effect which will degrade the surround sound. A number of wireless products work at 5.8 GHz which offers the advantage of less competition from other wireless devices than systems employing the crowded 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequency band.
Another solution are side-reflecting loudspeakers. These products are also called sound bars. In this case the audio for the remote loudspeakers will be sent by individual loudspeakers located at the front at an angle and reflected by walls as to seem to be coming from besides or behind the viewer. The effect heavily depends on the interior, in particular the shape of the room and the decoration. It will work well for square rooms with no obstacles and sound reflecting walls. On the other hand, realistic scenarios frequently will be different from this ideal and diminish the result of this approach.
Most of latest TVs will be installed as a multi-channel audio system. As historically TVs would come with built-in stereo loudspeakers, nowadays a number of external speakers are used to allow the viewer experience surround sound. In case of 5.1 surround, 6 speakers are utilized: center, left and right front, left and right rear and a subwoofer. Newer 7.1 systems need a total number of 8 speakers by adding 2 additional side speakers.
Thus installing a home theater has turn out to be fairly difficult and long speaker wire runs are often undesirable for aesthetic reasons. Suppliers have lately released new devices and technologies. These products were designed to help simplify the installation of home theater systems.
The advantage of this technology is that only a handful of loudspeakers are needed and no long speaker cord has to be run throughout the viewing environment. The disadvantage however is that each person will process audio in a different way because of the different form of each human ear. The signal processing of these virtual surround systems is based on a standard model which was calculated with a standard ear. However, virtual surround will not function equally well for each human.
Virtual surround avoids the remote speakers and simplifies the installation and also avoids long speaker cord runs. However, it also has a disadvantage. The form of each human's ear is slightly dissimilar. For that reason everybody processes sound differently. Because the signal processing is based on a standard human ear model, virtual surround will not function equally well for each person dependant upon how much the viewer varies from the standard model. An alternative method for simplifying home theater installations and eliminating long speaker wire runs is to employ wireless surround sound kits or wireless speakers. A wireless solution will usually incorporate a transmitter component that connects to the TV or source in addition to wireless amplifiers that will be connected to the remote speakers. This transmitter will typically come with line-level in addition to amplified loudspeaker inputs. Ideally it should come with a volume control to adjust it to the audio source.
Whilst some wireless speaker systems come with a wireless amplifier that connects to two speakers, other products offer separate wireless amplifiers for every speaker. The most basic wireless devices utilize FM broadcast. FM transmission is susceptible to noise and sound degradation. More sophisticated products make use of digital audio transmission to completely maintain the original audio. To be certain that all speakers are in sync in a multi-channel application, make certain that you choose a wireless system which has an audio latency of just a few milliseconds at most. If the latency is larger than 10 ms then there will be an echo effect which will degrade the surround sound. A number of wireless products work at 5.8 GHz which offers the advantage of less competition from other wireless devices than systems employing the crowded 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequency band.
Another solution are side-reflecting loudspeakers. These products are also called sound bars. In this case the audio for the remote loudspeakers will be sent by individual loudspeakers located at the front at an angle and reflected by walls as to seem to be coming from besides or behind the viewer. The effect heavily depends on the interior, in particular the shape of the room and the decoration. It will work well for square rooms with no obstacles and sound reflecting walls. On the other hand, realistic scenarios frequently will be different from this ideal and diminish the result of this approach.
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