Wireless VDonncet Module

[tee 0]

JULY 9, 2003

No more wires for your speakers

By Alfred Siew (Computer Times)

 

 

Anyone who has had to install audio speakers would have winced at the untidy wires required to connect everything together.

 

But soon, music lovers may be able to do away with the messy cables, thanks to a locally developed audio module designed to wirelessly connect CD players to speakers.

 

Called VConnect, the module is made by PSB Corporation, a corporate spin-off from the former Productivity and Standards Board, now called Spring Singapore. A user simply hooks up a VConnect module to a CD player (or other sound source), and a second module to a pair of speakers.

 

The first module takes the sound signal from the CD player, compresses it and sends it wirelessly to the module linked to the speakers. Here, the data is decompressed and is output from the speakers.

 

'Theoretically, there is no limit to the number of speakers you can hook up,' said Mr Toh Fook Seng, assistant vice-president of product design and engineering at PSB Corp.

 

Headphones and remote controllers can also be equipped with a VConnect module.

 

The PSB Corp device makes use of the same 2.4GHz frequency used by popular Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless equipment. But VConnect is smart enough to adapt to other wireless systems, said Mr Toh.

 

It does this by looking for a new channel or frequency space on the spectrum, if someone turns on a Wi-Fi base station, for example.

 

Currently, the wireless speakers available for sale typically make use of infrared technology, which does not penetrate walls or even cabinet shelves where audio equipment may be kept. In contrast, VConnect works in distances between six and seven metres, and between rooms as well, said Mr Toh.

 

PSB Corp is in talks with a few audio equipment makers to incorporate the technology into their hardware.

 

Mr Toh said that the first batch of 3,000 modules are due to ship to a customer for evaluation in the next month or so. Mass production is expected in September, with between 30,000 and 50,000 units to be shipped per month.

 

VConnect module

 

A few months ago, PSB Corp tested a new Samsung baseband chip used to process audio signals. The chip was capable of compressing audio signals without much quality loss, and contained a wireless transceiver to transport audio signals.

 

It made two types of modules called master and slave modules. Slave modules are usually attached to speakers which receive audio signals from a 'master' source, such as a CD player. Several slave devices can be connected wirelessly to a master module.

 

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Has anyone tried it ?

[Mackie 0]

The bit on compression and decompression will perturb all audiophiles. Remember the old days of cassette decks where there are dolby B, dolby C (more compression) and dbx (most compression) noise reduction systems? The latter is the worst of the lot and unless the fallacy of compression/decompression has already been defeated, this technology is more appriopriate for public broadcasting and lifestyle music systems etc......all none too serious for those trekking towards sonic heaven.

[bummer 0]

From what I read of the report above, here's my interpretation of the system:

 

I assume that in the wireless link, they are going to transmit the audio signal in a digital format. This would make most sense as if they sent the audio signal as an analog signal, it would be nothing more then a FM radio.

 

The problem with sending a digital signal is that I assume, they are not using the digital output of the CD player. Which means they will be doing their own conversation of the analog audio signal (from the CD player) into their own digital signal. Here is 1st point where you will quite possibly encounter loss. Say our CDP has some high resolution fantastic D/A convertor, the analog signal will be converted into a digital format by their algorithms which is probably not as high resolution. So 1st point of degradation of audio signal.

 

Then on the receiver part, they will convert the digitized audio signal into an analog signal. Again, I don't think their D/A convertors can compare to the kind of D/A converters present in an audiophile's equipment. So loss again.

 

The next question is what kind of power amp are they using and what did they design. After all, you can't just have any kind of amp to drive speakers. What about power source? So these things will probably need to have wires to attach to some power outlet for power as well.

 

So in my opinion, I don't think audiophiles will be scrambling to get these devices. As mackie said, probably used for lifestyle systems.

Edited July 9, 2003 by bummer

[tee 0]

Hmmm....thanks for your opinions, Mackie and Bummer. Looks like VConnect is targeted mainly for low-end audio and Wi-Fi applications.

[Mackie 0]

Some time ago, I read about Pioneer's research in a wireless home theatre system and on top of that, it uses laser beam to measure deflections within the room and preset the volume setting of each surround channel to obtain an even sound field. Interesting concept.

[Northern Oak 0]

Hmmm....thanks for your opinions, Mackie and Bummer. Looks like VConnect is targeted mainly for low-end audio and Wi-Fi applications.

Like what Alfred mentioned, it's for music lovers, not for hi-fiers, that's why the compression and decompression.

 

IMO, wireless would bring RFI into the picture and as the current market trend is for more devices to go wireless.

 

Instead of using RF as transport medium, I believe free space optics may be a better option as it's interference free. Lasers are able to transmit very good square waveforms right up to even the Gigahertz range so there's no danger of data transmission bottleneck. This also meant that you do not need to perform compression and decompression which may/may not affect the sound quality. (One catch : you may need a direct line of sight)