The Wireless Speaker and Audio Association (WiSA) was originally created to promote the technology that was created by Summit Semiconductor, later renamed Summit Wireless Technologies and now called just WiSA Technologies. The original approach consisted on offering hardware platforms (modules) enabling immersive, wireless sound technology for home entertainment systems, able to support the transmission of high-resolution, 24-bit up to 96kHz multichannel audio, working on the more reliable U-NII 5GHz spectrum, with a unique signal latency of just 5.2 milliseconds and 1 microsecond channel synchronization.
More recently, WiSA expanded its range of solutions to meet quickly evolving market requirements. From one side, expanding its proven WiSA eight-channel wireless audio system to support Dolby Atmos and other immersive audio formats by supporting up to 12 speakers connected simultaneously (adding height speakers to the standard surround configurations). No other wireless audio technology currently in the market allows this level of performance and convenience for home environments. This is based on the original WiSA technology and is now designated as WiSA Home Theater Technology, or WiSA HT.
On the second front, the consumer electronics market has been demanding increasingly more affordable approaches for convenient wireless expansions of TV sound and soundbars. This led WiSA to create a new hardware module (Discovery) supporting up to four channels of uncompressed 16-bit/48kHz audio — four full-range audio channels and one high-fidelity subwoofer channel — over a standard 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network in order to create all-in-one home theater systems and soundbar system expansions. The major trade-off being the higher signal latency of 40 milliseconds (30 milliseconds transport latency), and 20 microseconds channel synchronization. This more affordable alternative, designated as WiSA Discrete System Technology (or WiSA D), is able to offer an alternative to competitive wireless audio technologies.
Now, WiSA Technologies decided to expand its approach also to a software-based approach. As consumer demand for an enhanced audio experience grows, WiSA Technologies projects that a low-cost licensing program could also make WiSA’s audio technology readily available to industry platforms that will enable an ecosystem of affordable and interoperable immersive audio products.
"Today’s multichannel audio components are expensive ASICs that are relegated to the higher end of the market," says Eric Almgren, WiSA’s Chief Strategy Officer. "WiSA has taken its multichannel audio technology that is currently used by many of the world’s leading audio brands and created an embeddable software product designed to run on HDTV SoC platforms and low-cost IoT/Wi-Fi chips. Our new licensing program enables any smart TV or speaker to offer multichannel, high-quality wireless audio at a much lower cost than what is currently available on the market."
WiSA E is an interoperable audio software/IP solution designed to be ported to TV SoC platforms enabling built-in transmission capabilities of high-quality multichannel audio streams. To enable an ecosystem of interoperable speakers, WiSA E is also designed to run on low-cost 3rd-party 5GHz IoT chips/modules. The WiSA Association, a 70+ industry member organization, is currently developing an interoperability test specification to ensure that products using WiSA E technology work seamlessly with each other.
"For the majority of consumers, high-quality immersive audio systems are too expensive and too complex to set up," says Brett Moyer, WiSA’s CEO. "By licensing WiSA’s industry-proven multichannel wireless audio technology to HDTV platform providers, consumers can easily and affordably add wireless speakers creating a full Atmos-capable immersive sound system without the need for any extra cables or wires."
WiSA E is sampling now (Q4, 2022) with select Beta customers and software product business licensing discussions have begun. WiSA E software porting to platforms is being supported in USA, Asia, and India and WiSA Technologies expects WiSA E software to be in production during 2023.
WiSA Technologies will be demonstrating WiSA E at CES 2023 in Las Vegas. Demonstrations are by appointment only and will be available Thursday – Saturday, January 5-7, 2023 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Convention Center. To schedule a product demonstration and discuss how WiSA E licensing can enable increased revenue by embedding wireless audio capabilities in TVs, please contact James Cheng, VP Sales.
WiSA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: WISA) is working with leading CE brands and manufacturers such as Harman International, a division of Samsung, LG, Hisense, TCL, Bang & Olufsen, and many others, to deliver immersive wireless sound to consumer entertainment products. WiSA Technologies, Inc. is a founding member of WiSA (the Wireless Speaker and Audio Association) whose mission is to define wireless audio interoperability standards as well as work with leading consumer electronics companies, technology providers, retailers, and ecosystem partners to evangelize and market spatial audio technologies driven by WiSA Technologies, Inc. The company is headquartered in Beaverton, OR with sales teams in Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea, and California.
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