As you may have noticed (and we have mentioned in earlier stories), there are a growing number of audio companies joining the wireless multi-room whole home speaker category. And those companies who have been in the business for a while (e.g., SONOS, Heos/Denone) continue to expand their platform over time. In common among the platforms are the ability to put speakers in different rooms in your house without worrying about cutting holes in your walls and routing wires in there. It's pretty common to be able to listen to the same music all over the home or select different music for each room, and all from the palm of your hand via an app on your phone or tablet.
In most cases, these companies use a proprietary software platform to operate the speakers and control the music, which is all well and good if you stick within the brand, but what if you want to mix and match speakers from different brands in your home? Like maybe you want a set of high-end wireless bookshelf speaker in the living room, but something a little simpler and more portable for your patio or pool? Well, too bad because you're gonna have to stick with that original audio company and their products. That may or may not be the best option for you.
DTS has gone about the wireless speaker thing a bit differently, developing a wireless music platform called Play-Fi and licensing this technology out to other companies to make the gear. One would assume that a company that specializes in making speakers would be really good at making speakers and a company that makes amplifiers and music servers has got that part of the business down. And maybe these companies don't want to expend the R&D efforts (and cash) to build a wireless music platform from scratch. And so that's where DTS Play-Fi comes in: a wireless music platform that any electronics company can join, just by licensing the technology from DTS.
The company came to New York City earlier this month to show off some of their new partners and their gear. As of this month, DTS Play-Fi is available (or has been officially announced) on speakers, media servers and other electronic gear from Polk, MartinLogan, Phorus, Paradigm, McIntosh, Wren, Definitive Technology, Fusion and Arcam. Now you can choose from wireless music systems in a wide price range, from a small tabletop wireless speaker from Phorus for $99 to a high-end multi-channel MartinLogan soundbar for $1700. And all are compatible with the DTS Play-Fi ecosystem.
In case your portable streaming needs include video in addition to audio, DTS Play-Fi now supports true audio/visual synchronization when streaming from YouTube, Hulu, Netflix or Amazon Prime to a Play-Fi speaker from a Microsoft Windows PC. This should prevent the common complaint of the sound lagging behind the picture. And that's a very good thing. And giving consumers a choice of what brand speakers to buy for different rooms while still tying the sound together in a single wireless platform? Also, a very good thing. But can they compete with the more established players like Sonos? Time will tell.
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