An audio revolution has occurred in the last 5 years, giving us more connection options than ever to connect our favourite tracks to various audio outlets throughout the home.
Multi room systems have become the ultimate gadget toy for your household, and big tech names such as Google and Amazon have thrown their mighty R & D departments into producing game changing options to fuel this ever growing market space.
Having audio connect seamlessly from room to room is the aim for most manufacturers, and technology improvements in the last few years have led to some fantastic and affordable options which fulfill this aim unequivocally.
A true multi room speaker system will allow you to play music in your bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room all at once; from multiple sources or a single source, and in any combination.
You will be able to play different tracks in different rooms, or create zones playing different music in your bedroom and en suite to what is being played in your lounge and kitchen.
It will also combine different speaker types, so you might have a portable speaker in the bedroom, a multi room ceiling speaker system across the rest of the house, and some hidden outdoor weatherproof speakers in the garden; all playing seamlessly from multiple devices in any configuration.
MULTI ROOM AUDIO CONNECTION
Connection of your multi room speaker system can be made via WiFi, Bluetooth, or hard wired LAN cabling and there are pros and cons for each option.
Wifi gives you the flexibility of cable less connection, but running several speakers over WiFi can put a big strain on your network causing drops and data latency.
Bluetooth has wireless benefits that won’t have such a big impact on your network, but you will have to put up with the odd phone call jumping over your audio, and there’s a limited range of around 10m for Bluetooth in many devices.
A fully installed LAN cable connection will put the least amount of pressure on your network and is the most reliable, but this can be quite a big project to run cables everywhere which can be quite costly in whole home audio systems.
MULTI ROOM CEILING SPEAKER SYSTEM
The trend towards ever more minimalist design means that Multi room ceiling speaker systems are becoming more popular with households that traditionally chose large boxes on furniture or wall mounted speaker variants.
Ceiling speakers come in all shapes, colours and sizes, and offer excellent performance coupled with subtle design to remain heard but not seen, with thin beveled edging and cabling all neatly hidden away in the ceiling cavity.
As part of your multi room ceiling speaker system you can include surround sound for your TV to give amazing sound reinforcement to your movies, whilst also combining stereo ceiling speakers for bathrooms, and down lighter speakers in kitchens; all with the added benefit of having the most reliable connection over LAN.
As well as the huge tech companies mentioned previously, there are multi room speaker systems available from specialist audio companies that deliver better results and for more affordable pricing.
MULTI ROOM AUDIO INSTALLATION
Take the Systemline 7 for instance, which has cable-connected amplifiers giving the benefits of LAN connection, but then goes a step further by having net servers which hold your playlists reducing the need for an internet connection entirely, with the option of still using streaming services when you want as well.
You can connect multiple amplifiers together for the various rooms you have which work in unison to provide what we think is the most reliable multi room ceiling speaker system available.
Other options for hard-wired connections come from Nuvo with their whole home audio system, or Tibo with their Bond 4 range, which allow for localised hard-wired amplification directly to your network giving the reliability you want but for a very attractive price.
Both systems still offer the benefits of all good multi room ceiling speaker systems in regards to streaming audio and multi room configuration, but most crucially, they won’t suffer from dropouts.
This makes the Nuvo and Tibo systems an excellent choice for both their features and their cost, making whole home audio systems affordable for every household.
WHOLE HOME AUDIO SYSTEM
Every home is different, and how we use our homes is different still, which is why choosing a whole home audio system that meets your needs can be a complex task.
If you like to stream music from app services such as Spotify or Deezer, but like the idea of portability in one space and fixed installations in others, then it takes a little more planning than a standard multi room ceiling speaker system for example.
Likewise, if you’re someone with a large catalogue of music saved to a hard drive and rarely use digital streamers, a fixed wired system with inbuilt servers could be the best way to go.
By connecting your whole home audio system in an app, you have control right at your fingertips from anywhere in the house.
If it’s too loud in the bedroom; turn it down from wherever you are; or perhaps you could do with more bass in a specific room, it’s as easy as 3 clicks to increase it.
MULTI ROOM AUDIO TECHNOLOGY
Multi room speaker systems are now on the cutting edge of technology and are helping to reinvigorate our connection to music in what seems like a non-stop busy day-to-day lifestyle we all now have.
The revolution is well and truly happening right before our eyes and everything that wasn’t possible in a whole home audio system 5 years ago is now a reality.
Audio installations have been supplying speaker systems for more than 10 years and have seen the changes first hand as new products and technology have been developed.
We have not only created plans for installers, but also installed systems into homes, businesses and offices giving them complete audio solutions at the touch of a button.
Whether it’s smart speakers, ceiling speakers, garden speakers, or whole home audio systems including all of these speaker types, our experience in putting it all together can be extremely valuable to your project.