The procedure of installing multi-channel audio speakers in home theater systems is relatively tedious and suppliers have invented new products and technologies like wireless surround sound speakers or surround sound wireless headphones recently to help simplify the setup. I will look at several of the latest technologies that were developed to make installing home theater systems a snap. I will illustrate what to look out for when making your buying decision. Most of latest TVs will be set up as a multi-channel audio system. While historically TVs would come with built-in stereo speakers, today a number of external loudspeakers are used to let 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 require a total number of 8 speakers by adding 2 additional side speakers.
Thus the setup of home theater products has become a relatively complicated procedure. A lot of houses are not pre-wired for surround sound. Furthermore, long speaker wires are often unattractive. Manufacturers have lately launched new products and technologies. These products were designed to help simplify the installation of home theater systems.
Thus setting up a home theater has become pretty intricate and long speaker cable runs are normally undesirable for aesthetic reasons. Part suppliers have developed several technologies to simplify the setup. The first method is referred to as virtual surround sound. This solution will take the audio components which would typically be sent by the remote speakers. It then applies signal processing to those components and inserts special cues and phase delays. Then these components are mixed with the front speaker sound. The signal processing is designed based on how the human hearing determines the location of a sound. The sound signal is then broadcast through the front loudspeakers. The signal processing has an effect that will deceive the listener into presuming that the audio is originating from a different location.
The benefit of this technology is that only a handful of speakers are required and no long speaker cord has to be run all through the viewing environment. The disadvantage though is that each human will process sound differently because of the dissimilar shape of every human ear. Because the signal processing is based on a standard human ear model, virtual surround will not function equally well for everybody depending on how much the viewer varies from the standard model.
A different approach for eliminating long speaker cord runs is to use wireless surround sound systems or wireless loudspeakers. A wireless kit contains a transmitter and one or a number of wireless amplifiers. The transmitter connects to the source. The wireless amplifiers connect to the remote loudspeakers. The transmitter will often have amplified speaker inputs in addition to line-level inputs and have a volume control to adjust it to the source audio level.
A number of wireless speaker kits are designed to connect 2 speakers per wireless amplifier. A better solution would provide a wireless amplifier for each remote speaker to eliminate the wire runs between each of the 2 remote speakers. The most basic wireless kits employ FM transmission. FM transmission is prone to noise and audio distortion. More sophisticated devices make use of digital audio transmission to perfectly preserve the original audio. To make sure that all loudspeakers are in sync in a multi-channel application, make certain that you pick a wireless system that has an audio latency of just a few milliseconds at most. A large latency would lead to an echo effect. This effect would degrade the surround effect. Some wireless products operate at 5.8 GHz which offers the benefit of less competition from other wireless products than devices using the crowded 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequency band.
An alternative method, which is often named sound bars uses side-reflecting loudspeakers. The audio that would ordinarily be sent by the remote speakers is instead sent by loudspeakers at the front. These front speakers broadcast the audio at an angle. Then the sound is reflected by the side and rear walls and appears to be coming from besides or behind the viewer. The effect heavily is dependent upon the interior, in particular the shape of the room and the decoration. It will function well for square rooms with no obstacles and sound reflecting walls. Then again, realistic scenarios often will differ from this ideal and diminish the effect of this approach.
Thus the setup of home theater products has become a relatively complicated procedure. A lot of houses are not pre-wired for surround sound. Furthermore, long speaker wires are often unattractive. Manufacturers have lately launched new products and technologies. These products were designed to help simplify the installation of home theater systems.
Thus setting up a home theater has become pretty intricate and long speaker cable runs are normally undesirable for aesthetic reasons. Part suppliers have developed several technologies to simplify the setup. The first method is referred to as virtual surround sound. This solution will take the audio components which would typically be sent by the remote speakers. It then applies signal processing to those components and inserts special cues and phase delays. Then these components are mixed with the front speaker sound. The signal processing is designed based on how the human hearing determines the location of a sound. The sound signal is then broadcast through the front loudspeakers. The signal processing has an effect that will deceive the listener into presuming that the audio is originating from a different location.
The benefit of this technology is that only a handful of speakers are required and no long speaker cord has to be run all through the viewing environment. The disadvantage though is that each human will process sound differently because of the dissimilar shape of every human ear. Because the signal processing is based on a standard human ear model, virtual surround will not function equally well for everybody depending on how much the viewer varies from the standard model.
A different approach for eliminating long speaker cord runs is to use wireless surround sound systems or wireless loudspeakers. A wireless kit contains a transmitter and one or a number of wireless amplifiers. The transmitter connects to the source. The wireless amplifiers connect to the remote loudspeakers. The transmitter will often have amplified speaker inputs in addition to line-level inputs and have a volume control to adjust it to the source audio level.
A number of wireless speaker kits are designed to connect 2 speakers per wireless amplifier. A better solution would provide a wireless amplifier for each remote speaker to eliminate the wire runs between each of the 2 remote speakers. The most basic wireless kits employ FM transmission. FM transmission is prone to noise and audio distortion. More sophisticated devices make use of digital audio transmission to perfectly preserve the original audio. To make sure that all loudspeakers are in sync in a multi-channel application, make certain that you pick a wireless system that has an audio latency of just a few milliseconds at most. A large latency would lead to an echo effect. This effect would degrade the surround effect. Some wireless products operate at 5.8 GHz which offers the benefit of less competition from other wireless products than devices using the crowded 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequency band.
An alternative method, which is often named sound bars uses side-reflecting loudspeakers. The audio that would ordinarily be sent by the remote speakers is instead sent by loudspeakers at the front. These front speakers broadcast the audio at an angle. Then the sound is reflected by the side and rear walls and appears to be coming from besides or behind the viewer. The effect heavily is dependent upon the interior, in particular the shape of the room and the decoration. It will function well for square rooms with no obstacles and sound reflecting walls. Then again, realistic scenarios often will differ from this ideal and diminish the effect of this approach.
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