As any of us who are in the consumer electronics industry, or who have owned AV equipment through the years know, things have changed quite a bit over time. Components use more advanced materials in their construction and features continuously evolve to accommodate more complex configurations. But perhaps the greatest change has been the transition from analog to digital formats. This transition concerns not only television signals, but encompasses a broad range of technology, impacting nearly every aspect of AV systems and changing the way in which end users interact with the technology.

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If you have ever owned a baby monitor or a wireless intercom from your local Big Box retailer, you have experienced wireless audio at its most entry level. Sound quality is typically mediocre at best, range often falls short of ‘perfect world’ specifications, and interference is just part of life. Such technologies have to some extent, given wireless audio a bad rap.

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Over the many decades of evolution in the entertainment technology field, functionality has always been ‘coming together’ into increasingly capable solutions. To listen to high quality audio in the 1950s, you needed a preamplifier, a tuner and a power amplifier. These were the core components required to drive a set of loudspeakers. Harman was the first company to integrate all of these into what became known as the ‘receiver’.

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When you look at the sheer number of different products in any genre of consumer commodities, the results can be overwhelming. Whether you consider writing instruments or toys, electronics or appliances, there are thousands of models within a profusion of categories. Occasionally, a “reinvention of the wheel” occurs.

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Multi-room audio technology offers many options for today’s consumer. From multi-channel amplifiers to elaborate switching matrices, from basic keypads to advanced touch-screen LCD’s, the distribution system can be as complex as it is capable. Many systems require extensive wiring with speaker and data cables, and installation is often recommended at the construction stage of your home, as the capacity to retrofit such wiring into an existing structure can be expensive at best, or at times, not possible at all.

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Distributing music to multiple rooms of your home can be a very exciting experience, and can be accomplished in a number of ways, with many types of equipment. Some multi-room audio solutions use wired speakers, amplifiers and wall mounted controls, while others rescind the wall mounted controls in favor of fully app-controlled operation.

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