Posted Thu Jul 24, 2014 at 05:00 AM PDT by Steven Cohen
Several more companies have signed up to join the growing Play-Fi ecosystem.
DTS has announced a new partnership between Fine Sounds Group that will allow McIntosh, Sonus Faber, and Wadia audio brands to integrate DTS Play-Fi technology into their consumer electronics products. Play-Fi is an advanced cross-platform wireless audio technology that lets users stream and enjoy music through their Wi-Fi connections.
"Whole-home audio over WiFi is poised to become one of the most impactful trends our industry has ever seen," stated Charlie Randall, president, Fine Sounds Group. "When it came to outfitting our products with WiFi audio functionality, we wanted to make sure that we utilized a platform that not only offered the industry's most advanced features, but delivered the highest possible quality, capable of pleasing even the most discerning of ears. Being the most widely adopted multi-room, high quality WiFi home audio ecosystem in the industry, Play-Fi was the right fit for us, and we are excited to be working with DTS to roll out our new products featuring Play-Fi connectivity later this year."
Play-Fi gives both customers and manufacturers a great level of freedom when it comes to integrating and using Wi-Fi streaming for music. With Play-Fi audio products users can wirelessly play music from any service using the Play-Fi drivers for Windows and Android. Likewise, consumers can also use Play-Fi apps for Android, iOS, and Kindle Fire to bring "over 20,000 radio stations, podcasts, local music, media servers, and select cloud-based music services" to their Play-Fi enabled speaker systems. Lag-free music can then be streamed to multiple Play-Fi speakers connected in a single zone throughout a house. Similarly, customers can also opt to create multiple zones with their speakers to stream different music to different rooms in their homes. The technology even supports the streaming of high resolution audio and several lossless formats without any reduction in quality. And unlike other proprietary wireless streaming technologies, Play-Fi does not require any special bridges or routers, allowing customers to simply use their existing Wi-Fi setup.
"With the Play-Fi platform's strong roster of integrated content services and flexibility to synchronize products from a wide range of leading audio brands all on one home network, Play-Fi delivers on our promise of offering the industry a platform that promotes a new competitive, yet cooperative landscape for creating connected audio products that seamlessly work together," said Dannie Lau, General Manager, Play-Fi Division, DTS.
McIntosh, Sonus Faber, and Wadia join an increasingly expanding list of Play-Fi partners that already includes companies like Polk and Definitive Technology. Together, this growing ecosystem offers a wide-range of Play-Fi audio products that covers everything from soundbars to battery powered speakers and AVRs. Specific upcoming products have not been detailed yet, but each company is expected to make their own announcements in the coming months.
Source: DTS
See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.
The latest news on all things 4K Ultra HD, blu-ray and Gear.