WISA Wireless Speaker and Audio Association Debuts

There are a whole bunch of wireless speakers, headphones and consumer electronics already out and about, but no association to make sure every one of them gets along, so WiSA was founded at last.

Put simply, the WiSA Association, short for Wireless Speaker and Audio Association, will do its best to ensure interoperability among the above.

That includes wireless headphones, earphones, speakers, wireless DTVs, Blu-ray players, media players, etc.

Through the certification and test program, HD wireless audio products for the home will be more easily developed and marketed.

Gaming consoles, set-top boxes and mobile devices should make the list of tested products in addition to those mentioned above.

“Consumers are looking for a reliable, high-quality wireless audio experience that offers seamless interoperability between products from multiple brands,” said Jim Venable, president of the WiSA Association.

“With the interoperability testing and certification programs created by the WiSA Association, manufacturers will be able to bring products to market that provide consumers with a wireless audio experience of exceptional performance and ease of use.”

Among the companies that are part of WiSA are Aperion Audio, DEI Holdings, Inc. (parent company to Polk Audio and Definitive Technology), Meiloon Industrial Co., Pioneer Corporation, SHARP Corporation, Hansong Electronics Co., Klipsch Group, Inc., Meiloon Industrial Co., Pioneer Corporation Silicon Image and Summit Semiconductor.

At least, they all wrote and signed letters of intent to join the WiSA Association as Advisory Board members.

Other companies will probably apply for membership over time as well.

The products subject to their scrutiny will be those with interference-free, uncompressed HD audio over the 5 GHz Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) frequency band.

Everything from entry-level products to high-end devices with 16 or 24-bit audio and up to 96 kHz sampling rate will be tested and certified (stereo to 7.1 surround sound and beyond).