Music for the Masses?
DTS Play-Fi Promises Incredible Lossless Audio Quality For Everyone.
Many wireless speakers are designed to work only in a proprietary system. That is to say, only one branded system. Sonos for example only works with the Sonos app and Apple’s AirPlay only works with Apple iPhones and iPads or iTunes running on a Macintosh or Windows based PC. Amazon’s Alexa has its partners, so does Google home. Shouldn’t there be at least one wireless protocol that is system agnostic? It turns out that’s not so easy.
Mostly everyone knows Apple has a proprietary system and Android is open. Because of this Android can send a wireless audio signal over several different protocols. Keep in mind that even though you’re using an Android device you still may be sending a signal that the wireless speakers can’t understand. This is a transmission protocol error whereby the receiver doesn’t recognize the sender. It’s as if they are speaking to one another in different languages. To fix this error, or prevent it from happening in the first place, one must standardize upon a single protocol. My favorite protocol, and one that’s growing in popularity and capability is Play-Fi by DTS. Here’s what you need to know about this technology.
Play-Fi is created and supported by Digital Theater Systems, DTS for short. They are an audio company synonymous & eponymous with the digital sound encoding done for Hollywood’s major motion pictures. DTS licenses Play-Fi to different audio companies who wish to build Play-Fi compatible wireless speakers, amplifiers and music players. The great part about Play-Fi is that the bitstream is lossless, meaning the audio fidelity is maintained. Play-Fi is backwards compatible meaning speakers and devices you purchase now will work in the future as system upgrades come out and it’s also system agnostic meaning it will operate with Apple, Android, Windows or even Amazon.
Play-Fi wireless audio can stream to as many as eight speakers synchronized throughout your home. Alternately, one can listen to different music streaming from different devices to different Play-Fi enabled speakers. Play-Fi is DLNA compatible meaning it plays well with the 4 billion DLNA certified devices currently in existence. The Digital Living Network Alliance is a trade organization started by Sony over 13 years ago that dictates the rules regarding devices sharing audio & video. Basically, if you have a DLNA storage device like a NAS or similar then you can use Play-Fi enabled speakers to stream all of the music stored on that device directly from your smartphone or tablet to Play-Fi equipped speakers!
The Play-Fi protocol uses 802.11 Wi-Fi for wireless communication which is good because it’s ubiquitous but bad because there’s likely going to be network congestion. Fortunately Play-Fi employs a technique called load balancing to help avoid interruptions to the music stream. As previously mentioned, Play-Fi offers lossless streaming making its sonic quality equal to Apple. Of course, the final sound quality will ultimately be determined by the speakers you select. Let your ears and wallet battle it out or ask a professional for advice.
If you’re considering using Play-Fi’s multi-zone capability, you’ll want to make certain you have the right wireless router for the job. There are many wireless standards currently in use; they are differentiated as “b”, “g”, “n”, “ac” and so on. Currently, version “ac” is the fastest at a theoretical 1300 Mb/sec. For Play-Fi’s multi-zone capability, Haas Entertainment recommends a specialty AV router on the “802.11ac” standard connected to strategically placed “ac” wireless access points (WAP) as opposed to a standard-issue router from your local cable company.
For help setting up a robust Play-Fi or other wireless music system in your home give Haas Entertainment a call.
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