Wireless Home Theater

There are many companies providing Wireless Home Theater systems differing in cost, complexity and functionalities. For example, recently a new wireless 5.1 channel surround sound Wireless Home Theater-in-a-box system from Sony. The speakers and the subwoofer of the DAV-DS1000 connect to its receiver digitally using infrared, so you don't have to string speaker cable everywhere. The DAV-DS1000 also has an unusual-looking upright DVD player that plays Super Audio CDs as well as regular DVD video discs.

Let’s see another scenario for Wireless Home Theater. Rockford Corporation and RealNetworks recently announced that the Omnifi Wireless Home Theater digital media streamer is now interoperable with the award-winning Rhapsody Internet jukebox service, making Rhapsody the first digital music service to enable consumers to control and listen to the service in their living room. The Omnifi Wireless Home Theater digital media streamer enables broadband-connected consumers to link their PC and high-fidelity home stereo and Wireless Home Theater systems to enjoy Rhapsody's library of more than 30,000 CDs throughout their homes.

The Omnifi Wireless Home Theater product is a stand-alone receiver capable of streaming media from consumers' personal computers to their home stereo and home theater systems utilizing their existing wired and/or wireless 802.11B home networks. Omnifi Wireless Home Theater gives consumers the ability to easily transmit entertainment content from the PC hard drive to consumers' home stereo/theater systems. In the past year, the Omnifi Wireless Home Theater has won a number of prestigious awards, including the CEA "2003 Best of Innovations" award at CES 2003 and TechTV's "Best of CES" award. Priced at $299, the device began shipping in August and now supports Rhapsody.

"Pairing Rhapsody and Omnifi Wireless Home Theater products changes the way consumers interact with and consume digital music," said Tim Bratton, general manager of wireless music delivery, RealNetworks. "Real and Omnifi Wireless Home Theater are finally giving consumers the ability to select and listen to online music from anywhere in their home."

New Omnifi products will ship with updated firmware that enables consumers to access the playlists, albums, artists and radio stations in their Rhapsody library. Existing Omnifi customers must upgrade the firmware on their Omnifi device, which can be easily, accomplished using the device's SimpleCenter software. "Omnifi allows a user to easily stream the audio content held on their computer or straight from the Internet to a dedicated home theater system without the burden of rewiring the house," explains Tom O'Mara, Omnifi managing director. "Combining Omnifi products with Real's Rhapsody service gives music fans an instant collection of more than 30,000 high fidelity CDs they can enjoy in the same room or on the other side of the house with no degradation of sound quality."