Wireless audio has grown to be widely used. Many consumer products which include wireless speakers are eliminating the cord and offer ultimate freedom of movement. I am about to take a look at how most recent wireless technology can cope with interference from other transmitters and just how well they will function in a real-world situation. The popularity of wireless products just like wireless speakers is responsible for a quick increase of transmitters that transmit in the preferred frequency bands of 900 MHz, 2.4 Gigahertz as well as 5.8 GHz and therefore cordless interference has become a serious problem.

FM type audio transmitters are generally the least robust with regards to tolerating interference considering that the transmission does not have any procedure to deal with competing transmitters. Nonetheless, those transmitters use a rather constrained bandwidth and changing channels may steer clear of interference. The 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequency bands are utilized by digital transmitters and also are getting to be very crowded lately given that digital signals take up far more bandwidth as compared to analogue transmitters.

FM type sound transmitters are usually the least robust in terms of tolerating interference since the transmission does not have any procedure to cope with competing transmitters. On the other hand, those transmitters use a fairly constrained bandwidth and switching channels may steer clear of interference. Advanced sound systems utilize digital sound transmission and often work at 2.4 GHz. These types of digital transmitters transmit a signal that takes up much more frequency space than 900 MHz transmitters and thus have a greater potential for colliding with other transmitters.

A frequently utilized method is forward error correction where the transmitter sends extra information with the audio. By using a number of innovative algorithms, the receiver may then fix the information which may in part be damaged by interfering transmitters. Subsequently, these products may broadcast 100% error-free even if there exists interference. Transmitters using FEC may broadcast to a large number of wireless devices and does not require any feedback from the receiver.

A different approach utilizes bidirectional transmission, i.e. each receiver transmits data to the transmitter. This strategy is only useful if the quantity of receivers is small. In addition, it needs a back channel to the transmitter. The data packets incorporate a checksum from which each receiver can easily decide if a packet was received correctly and acknowledge correct receipt to the transmitter. In cases of dropped packets, the receiver is going to inform the transmitter and the dropped packet is resent. As such both the transmitter and receiver require a buffer in order to store packets. This buffer will cause an audio delay which is dependent upon the buffer size with a bigger buffer improving the robustness of the transmission. Having said that a big buffer can result in a large latency which can lead to challenges with speakers not being synchronized with the movie. Cordless products that incorporate this method, however, can only broadcast to a restricted number of wireless receivers. Normally the receivers have to be paired to the transmitter. Given that each receiver also requires transmit functionality, the receivers are more pricey to manufacture and also use up more energy.

Often a frequency channel can get occupied by another transmitter. Ideally the transmitter can understand this fact and switch to yet another channel. To accomplish this, a few wireless speakers continually check which channels are available so that they can instantly change to a clear channel. This approach is also referred to as adaptive frequency hopping.