Saturday, December 8, 2012

Is that a speaker or a light?

I saw the IAV Light Speaker yesterday in an email from SmartHome. Pretty cool concept: a virtually hassle-free installation for wireless speakers. I haven't seen any reviews to know if they are worth anything (but would be willing to test them out for the manufacturer if they asked). Immediately, though, here are some problems (IMHO) with their approach:
  1. They are wireless, but the website doesn't have any information about the wireless technology (or even band) that is used. There is some information on this HomeToys press release-like article. But that is just enough to be concerned about wifi interference.
  2. Its not clear that the speaker and the LED components are modular. What if one dies and the other still works? This seems like a problem.
  3. High price - seriously, $200/speaker of unknown sound quality? $800 just to get started. Nope. No matter what you save in installation, this will be too high a barrier to most. Get it down to $100 for the base station and $100/speaker and I think you have something.
  4. No digital audio in option. It seems that this would have been easier (and a path of lower sound quality degradation) than their approach. So it goes from Analog at base station input toDigital for wireless transmission (presumably?) to Analog to be played by the speaker. Why not skip the first A/D conversion?
Still, a pretty cool concept that has some serious potential use in my house full of recessed lights!

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