Cringely Looking For Wireless Audio Standard

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.cringely.com/2008/12/the-missing-link/' target='_blank'>http://www.cringely.com/2008/12/the-missing-link/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"What&rsquo;s missing here is a de facto wireless audio standard for televisions. Look on the back of any of these new TVs and you&rsquo;ll find a forest of connections but none of the audio is wireless. There are RCA jacks, minijacks and optical, but no wireless. How much could it cost to add one more audio option? Not much &ndash; generally less than $10 in manufacturers&rsquo; cost."</em></p><p>Robert Cringely is lameting the fact that there isn't a standard for wireless audio.&nbsp; While there are various ways to transmit audio wirelessly, there is no standard like there is for video cables and audio cables for inside the house.&nbsp; Having dealt with finding a way to stream music and audiobooks to my bedroom wirelessly, I can sympathize.&nbsp; While I settled for the "low-tech" solution that is an FM transmitter, that technology does not provide the fidelity or capability of what a home theater deserves.&nbsp; He does concede to comments that HomePlug may be a feasible solution, but dismisses it owing to cost.&nbsp; However, earlier in the article, he notes that even sophisticated audio solutions are high in cost, owing to economies of scale.&nbsp; If HomePlug were to be fully embraced, I'm quite sure it would drop in cost.&nbsp; There are possibilities like Shoutcast and other streaming that could use an existing wireless network as well.&nbsp; Has anyone found a cost effective solution to provide 5.1 or 7.1 audio for a home theater?</p>

[Pony99CA]

So what's wrong with Bluetooth A2DP (and AVRCP for controlling the TV)? Class 1 Bluetooth has a 300 foot range, which should be sufficient.

UPDATE: I just read the article, and he's really not asking for wireless audio on the TV (or he shouldn't be); he wants wireless speakers for a home theater, which implies the wireless part should be in the home theater receiver, not the TV (unless he's trying to eliminate the receiver, too). The story here made me think he was talking about listening to your TV with headphones (or maybe in another room).

Even so, you could still use Bluetooth A2DP, but you'd need three (for 5.1 -- Center/Subwoofer, front left/right and rear left/right) or four (for 7.1) assuming you could wire the pairs together (or had wireless connections between the pairs). You'd just have to go through three pairings on your receiver to set things up.

However, you'll still have one problem -- speaker wires also generally supply power to the speakers. With wireless audio, you'd probably need to plug all of your speakers in (I'm not sure recharging them or changing batteries would be a viable solution). That would almost mandate HomePlug.

Steve