Switched On: Multi-room music's rocket ride
By Ross Rubin 
posted December 23rd 2009 5:29PM
posted December 23rd 2009 5:29PM
Those approaches, though, now face competition from a new ingredient brand called Rocketboost. While it may sound like a powdered nutritional supplement that Jamba Juice adds to smoothies, Rocketboost uses the second generation of a wireless audio technology dubbed AudioMagic 2G, which developer Avnera claims is the first multipoint to multipoint HD wireless audio platform. Indeed, AudioMagic 2G can support up to five sources and nine receivers -- significantly shy of Sonos's 32 zones, but enough to cover many homes. Each Rocketboost receiver has, at minimum, a button to cycle through active sources, and the standard also supports displays that would enable more flexibility in source selection, particularly AudioMagic 2G has a data channel for sending information about a source and the content it is playing.
Avnera's first-generation technology was used by Best Buy in its Rocketfish wireless rear speaker surround kit, and the retail giant plans to do much of the boosting behind Rocketboost. For one, it's upgraded that rear speaker surround kit to accommodate 7.1-channel 96kHz audio for Blu-ray -- a jumping-off point that serves as a Trojan horse for building a whole-home audio system based around Best Buy's Rocketboost PC audio kits and outdoor speakers.
And Best Buy has even greater ambitions for the technology: it's encouraging other consumer electronics companies to license Avnera's technology and sell Rocketboost-enabled components at its stores and at other retailers worldwide. Some home audio companies may bite, particularly if it could help in having Best Buy feature their products. Others, though, have started down a different path; Sony's S-Air technology, which the company has integrated into a family of audio components, appears to be the closest competitor. Hedging its bets and offering consumers multiple opions, Best Buy has partnered with Sony to sell its S-Air products under the Altus name.
Regardless, it will continue to be a slow path toward mainstream whole-home music -- even Rockets don't seem very fast when you're shooting for the moon. |
The retailer's distribution and consideration of backward compatibility position the technology well to expand the customer base for multi-room music, but Rocketboost's technical flexibility can require some depth of understanding. For example, the PC speaker kit acts as both a transmitter and a receiver that can connect to powered speakers. The 5.1 rear surround audio product can be upgraded to a 7.1 option with the purchase of another box. And the outdoor speaker kit will gracefully upgrade its audio from monophonic to stereophonic when a second outdoor speaker is added.
As would be expected from a private-label brand, Rocketfish-branded Rocketboost gear stacks up pretty well in pricing. A pair of wireless transmitters/receivers lists for $120 whereas a wireless transmitter and receiver using EOS Wireless's Converge system costs $200, That's the same price as a single Sony S-Air tramsmitter/receiver or a Logitech Squeezebox Radio, the least expensive in its current lineup. However, an AirTunes-equipped Airport Express that uses an existing Wi-Fi network costs only $99.
While it rolls out with some gaps in its functionality compared to more mature systems, Rocketboost's tactical approach to building wireless audio functionality explores new options that are, in many cases, more flexible and interference-resistant than existing 900MHz and 2.4GHz alternatives while also simpler to set up than secure Wi-Fi. Beyond that, much will depend on how successfully Best Buy can evangelize the technology to other manufacturers. Regardless, it will continue to be a slow path toward mainstream whole-home music -- even Rockets don't seem very fast when you're shooting for the moon.
Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On are his own.
Airport express has had digital output since it was released AFAIK. You can also output from itunes to multiple base stations at once and it improves your wireless coverage, so why would I buy this? Seems ill-conceived at best.
@fdasfdsafdsa I guess cause it has an amp? I'd still prefer to get a cheep amp + airport express. It's sorta neat how BB shows it can be used for "wireless" surround (http://www.bestbuy.com/rocketboost). Then again is it *really* that hard to run a couple of wires? Only interesting option is the "wireless outdoor" and there are already far too many competing (cheaper) options out there.
@jfine
Exactly. It's not COMPLETELY wireless, either, as you'll always need a power cord. Airport Express FTW.
@crawdad689
Airport Express has terrible audio quality.
@jonjbayarea
the audio quality when using the digital output is irrelevant.
if you have the ecosystem to support the airport express, it's a fantastic option
Why? Why? Why?
There are 100 million PCs sold every year and probably many more Wi-Fi handsets. None of these have the Avnera radio technolgy, so none of them can be seamless sources or controllers (without some convoluted connections or dongles).
Klipsch did a wireless thing that was similar a couple of years back, Bose just released the Bluetooth-dongle thing, equally useless. Sony's S-Air will surely fail.
Mainstream Wi-Fi is the only way to go - its in everything you own already, its cheap, plenty of bandwidth (an uncompressed CD stream is 1.5Mbps - 5 of those are easily handled by even a .11g router let alone .11n) and it gives people what they want (entertainment thru access to content, not technology).
But then again Best Buy is the last man standing in the retail game, could have some some impact, but I doubt it.
"the first multipoint to multipoint HD wireless audio platform"
It's not "HD" if it's strictly an audio device. Slapping "HD" on shitty, degraded video is bad enough. Slapping it on audio products? DUMB.
@Information Central
HD = High Definition
HD audio is to the audio you get from the Airport Express as a $500 speaker system is to your apple headphones. HD doesn't mean it has to be 1080p, dumbass.
@greentee I assume you are implying that the AP Express has poor audio quality? Its designed as a transport from itunes to a DAC somewhere far away. If you are using the digital output, it will sound just as good as any other digital source. I'm told by many it is free of many of the problems of digital transport (jitter etc) that even some of the most expensive CD players experience
@greentee
Wrong. The "HD" label is for VIDEO, not audio. And no, it doesn't have to be 1080p; it could be 720p.
The product looks interesting. But the article fails to answer a critical question: What frequency does this think operate on? If it's 2.4 gHz, FORGET IT. We already have wireless phones, mice and keyboards, and who knows what other crap polluting our wireless network. Adding this would be monumentally ignorant.
@Information Central
It runs at 56 ghz from what i understand. It's a very clear sound. It supports multizone amps as well, which allows for independant audio sources playing at the same time.
@(Unverified)
I stand corrected, 2.4 but according to the specs, proprietary 2.4.
Thanks for the info.
That kills the product.
I hope this doesnt have a limit on the amount of files you can have in your collections like Sonos does. Sonos limits your collection to somewhere between 50,000 - 65,000 files depending on how elaborate your filenaming and tagging info is.
Squeezebox doesnt have any limits and I'm hoping this Rocketboost system doesnt either.
@jonjbayarea
I don't think this runs any particular server software. I think it just transmits what ever you plug into it. Software choice such as Itunes or Media Monkey is up to you. The pro's are that you can transmit audio regardless of whether you use Itunes, but the cons are that you won't be able to integrate the REMOTE iphone app if you don't use iTunes on your home PC.
I've enjoyed multi-room audio for about ten years now, thanks to a micro-power FM radio transmitter (which complies with the FCC regs, title 47, part 15). Connected to the audio output of my media machine, it pumps music to any room in the house equipped with a stereo receiver or FM radio. What's the big deal?
@Robbbb I'm sure my FLAC audio collection transmitted over FM would sound great through my B+W floorstanders.
@bdav
I would say the best solution is a Squeezbox from Logitech. They play FLAC (no conversion the codec is built-in) You can sync. them and you can chose them on an RJ-45 or Wifi network.
So I have been doing this for some time at home now work realy nice. Great players. got 3 of them in my house.
@Koinkoin Yep - that is indeed what I do! I
Been enjoying multi-room music for years thanks to Airport express. Much more compact and flexible than any of these standalone solutions. Paired with the iTunes remote app for iPhone/iPod Touch, and you get a very powerful solution.
@pika2000
But Airport Express audio quality sucks.
@jonjbayarea Digi out with a decent DAC?
Another Sonos wannabe.
Airport express is ok if you like crap music quality.
@(Unverified) it only sucks if you have horrible, best buy audio components. My Airport Express outputs whatever I tell it to. If it is a crap mp3, then that is what I get. If you have high bitrate junk, then it will sound better. The burden of sound quality is in your receiver and speakers. if you bought something from Best Buy, then you do not have good components to begin with. Harmon-Kardon and Denon sound awful. Compared to Mcintosh, 60s and 70s Marantz, and 60s-70s Sansui, you really get ripped when you drop any $$ on sound at Best Buy. Your speakers are an issue as well. What I am trying to say is the APX is not the issue in my case. It sounds incredible through my Sansui AU-717 and set of JBL L-166. If you are truly worried about audio quality, you need to start at the receiver and speakers and worry about the APX later.
I have this system and it works just fine to cut out the wires on my hardwood. It is 2.4 and I do have a pile of other 2.4 devices, but there doesn't seem to be any drops or degradation. Phone still works, laptop still downloads porn as fast as I can click, PlayStation remains connected, bb never drops.
The sound is great to me with a little tweaking, although maybe if you can hear a mouse fart from 80 yards like some of the posters here you might want to look elsewhere.
I've tried several brands of multi-room music broadcast and I've been uniformly disappointed by the price and/or the technology. Systems that distribute audio signals via 900Khz, 2.4GHz, and house wiring seem incapable of gettting a decent signal to travel farther than 20 feet from the base station. For those systems that use 2.4GHz signals, I find this lack of range to be pretty mysterious, given that my 2.4GHz network signals have no problem providing complete coverage throughout my house.
So, I've resorted to another solution - I look for small laptops that are on sale (often under $250) and use those as music (and video) multicast client receivers using VideoLAN (VLC - open source, free) to act as a music or video server on another base computer (media server). Turns out that a multipurpose laptop fully capable of receiving an audio signal via 2.4GHz wireless or powerline networking is far more reliable than any single-purpose music broadcasting hardware, at least in my experience.
Yes, I must also buy some decent self-powered speakers to pair with each laptop, or a powerline adaptor. When I'm done, I have an internet capable computer at each household location that can either access the common stream being broadcast by VLC to an IP address, or each laptop can play individualized music or video streamed off either the internet or my in-house media server.
In my experience, all the multi-room media servers I've seen so far are either incapable of providing a reliable audio signal throughout the house, or cost far more and provide less flexibility than the solution I've just described.
If you've already got a wireless network in the house, I'd recommend that you create your multi-room audio/video system using cheap laptops and self-powered speakers. Laptops are typically on sale just before school starts or at the holidays.
I'm sure my FLAC audio collection transmitted over FM would sound great through my B+W floorstanders.
i love jamba juice
its a ugly router thats all