Multi-room audio systems are now more affordable than ever to homeowners. Not only has advancement in technology (particularly wireless) made these systems easier to deploy, but customers are increasingly interested in having multi-room audio systems in their homes.
People nowadays prefer to spend more leisure time at home, therefore any product or service that may improve their home's comfort or elevate and improve their home entertainment alternatives is in high demand.
Multi-room audio is simply a network of devices that allows you to play music, audio books, podcasts, local radio stations, and other listening content from a central device, most likely a smartphone or tablet. Most multi-room audio systems, including the most expensive ones, are now wireless. This makes these systems more dynamic and manageable in terms of adding new rooms or adjusting speaker location.
A multi-room audio system allows a user to play various songs in different rooms at the same time, play the same music in all rooms, or play audio in only select rooms at the same time, depending on the configuration you pick for your customers.
The music played throughout a multi-room audio system can come from the customer's own personal music collection, a music server or network attached storage (NAS) drive, a USB device, a computer, or from a streaming service through the user's phone or tablet.
Multi-room audio systems operate in one of two ways. They could build their own internal mesh network or connect to the customer's current Wi-Fi.
1. Systems that build their own private network. A multi-room audio system that generates its own mesh network will connect to the user's home Wi-Fi at first, but will subsequently construct its own closed network, avoiding the usage of the customer's Wi-Fi when the system is in operation. This strategy also improves the system's reliability.
2. Systems that make advantage of existing Wi-Fi networks. Multi-room audio systems that connect to the customer's home Wi-Fi network rely on the network's strength and reliability, so bear in mind that this may have a direct influence on their network capacity.
Although most systems rely on Wi-Fi alone, others offer additional connectivity choices like Bluetooth. Different platforms support different systems. These platforms govern the user experience and the operation of each multi-room system. They also determine which speakers and systems are compatible and which are not.
Strong and dependable Wi-Fi connectivity is required for wireless multi-room audio systems. This ensures high-quality sound and a strong connection between goods. A tablet or mobile device, either Android or iOS, is also required to use a proprietary platform such as AirPlay or Google Chromecast. Alternatively, the user can install the app for the platform of a certain brand to control playing through the devices.
A multi-room audio system is comprised of the following products and network-ready devices:
- Bluetooth speakers
- Intelligent speakers
- Soundbars
- Receivers for A/V
- Amplifiers in stereo
- Streamers on the network
Depending on how simple or sophisticated a system is configured, a mix of a few or all of these items can be used.
Many multi-room audio systems need a single brand's ecosystem, so you can't mix and match multiple speaker brands. Users may, however, mix and match brands and products reasonably simply using open platforms such as DTS Play-Fi and Apple AirPlay.