Home Theater

Recent Technologies Make Installing Multi-Channel Audio Systems A Breeze

Multi-channel audio has become mainstream and vendors have come up with many types of basic and more advanced technologies including wireless surround speakers, virtual surround sound to simplify the setup of home theater products. I will look at a number of of the products and technologies that have appeared and give some advice about choosing proper components for a hassle-free setup.

As in the past setting up a TV has been pretty easy, the emergence of multi-channel audio has made installing home theater systems a good deal more complex by requiring a number of external speakers to create surround sound. While the traditional 5.1 format requires 6 speakers: a front center, two front side speakers, two rear speaker and a subwoofer, the more modern 7.1 format adds two additional side speakers.

For that reason, home theater setups have turn out to be relatively complicated. Running wires to remote speakers also is often undesirable due to aesthetic reasons. Several technologies have appeared to simplify this procedure.

The first approach is referred to as virtual surround sound. This option will take the audio components which would ordinarily be sent by the remote speakers. It then uses signal processing to those components and inserts special cues and phase delays. After that these components are mixed with the front speaker audio. The signal processing is engineered based on how the human hearing determines the location of a sound. The sound signal is then broadcast by the front speakers. The signal processing has an effect that will trick the listener into assuming that the audio is coming from an alternate position.

Virtual surround avoids the remote speakers and simplifies the setup and also avoids long speaker cable runs. On the other hand, it also has a disadvantage. The shape of each human’s ear is somewhat dissimilar. Consequently everybody processes sound differently. The signal processing is based on measurements which are done using a standard human ear model. If the shape of the ear changes, sound will travel in a different way. For that reason virtual surround will not work equally well for each person.

Another option for simplifying home theater installations and avoiding long speaker wire runs is to make use of wireless surround sound devices or wireless loudspeakers. A wireless solution will usually incorporate a transmitter module that connects to the TV or source and in addition wireless amplifiers that will be connected to the remote speakers. This transmitter will typically have line-level and also amplified speaker inputs. Ideally it should come with a volume control to adjust it to the audio source.

Some wireless systems come with wireless amplifiers that connect to two loudspeakers. This still requires cable runs between the two loudspeakers. Other products offer separate wireless amplifiers for each speaker. The most basic wireless products employ FM transmission. FM broadcast is prone to noise and audio degradation. More sophisticated devices utilize digital audio transmission to completely maintain the original audio. To ensure that all loudspeakers are in sync in a multi-channel application, make certain that you choose a wireless system which has an audio latency of a few milliseconds at most. If the latency is higher than 10 ms then there will be an echo effect which will deteriorate the surround sound. Wireless kits often use the 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequency band. A few products also use the 5.8 GHz band. These devices have less competition from other wireless products than products using the crowded 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz bands.

An alternative method, which is often called sound bars uses side-reflecting loudspeakers. The audio that would ordinarily be broadcast by the remote speakers is instead broadcast by speakers at the front. These front speakers broadcast the sound at an angle. Then the sound is reflected by the side and rear walls and appears to be originating from besides or behind the viewer. This method works best in a square room with minimal interior design and obstacles. It will not function well in a lot of real-world scenarios with diverse room shapes though.

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