Mitek's Soundolier Hides Wireless Surround Sound Speakers in a Lamp
By Chris Boylan
The problem with so-called "wireless" speakers has always been their wires. Sure, a wireless surround sound speaker does not need to be plugged into your receiver or television directly, but it does need to be plugged into a power source, which means there is usually going to be a visible wire leading from a power outlet to each speaker.
Mitek has found a way to turn this lemon into lemonade by taking two devices that need power, namely a speaker and a lamp, and combining them into one. After all, every room needs lighting, right?
Honored with one of this year's CES Innovations awards, and justifiably so, Mitek's "Soundolier" cleverly combines a wireless speaker with a nicely designed torchiere-style lamp. Controls for both the lighting and the speaker are included on each lamp.
The Soundolier will discreetly add discrete surround sound to any living room.
Mitek's wireless transmitter and subwoofer complete the wireless surround sound system.
The full Soundolier system is comprised of an RF transmitter/control unit ($79.99) lamp/speaker modules ($279.99 each), and wireless powered subwoofer module($279.99). The system is expected to ship in Q2 of this year.
For those interested in the specs, the RF/control unit converts an analog signal to digital audio at 16 bits/44 KHz (the same specs as CD), then transmits a stereo digital signal at 2.4 GHz, on up to 4 independent channels, for multi-room use. The speaker's omnidirectional design broadcasts sound in all directions with a maximum SPL of 90 dB.
At CES, I spoke with the designer Spencer Dodge, while he demonstrated the Soundoliers with a variety of different movie and musical content. It was tough to get a real sense of the sound quality of the unit in such a noisy place, with about 1,000 other RF devices and networks interfering with the transmission. But the system definitely holds promise and we hope to get a set of these in for a full review on the site later this year.
