Wireless home theater systems offer a lot of convenience and flexibility to home theater owners. However, there's more to installing a wireless solution than just doing away with the wiring. In fact, as things stand, the wireless home theater system isn't entirely wireless – it just has fewer wires. However, it's still more convenient for owners than conventional wired theater systems.
As time goes on and technology advances, wireless home theater systems become cheaper, faster, and easier to install. They allow the reduction of clutter and installation by home theater owners, instead of professionals. The biggest focus in most modern wireless home theater systems is the use of wireless speakers. This eliminates trailing wires around the perimeter of the room, meaning that special efforts to hide these wire bundles are not required when installing rear speakers for surround sound.
Other devices in a home theater system that may have wireless support are media players and set top boxes. As the technologies for these things become more advanced, fully wireless systems for the average consumer may become available and affordable. However, at the time, a full wireless entertainment system that can be installed in the home isn't a practical mass-market proposition.
Popular wireless home theater manufacturers include D-Link, Actiontec, and NetGear, all of which make wireless digital media players. If you have a computer with Windows XP Media Center, Vista Ultimate Edition, or Vista Home Premium Edition, you can use a Media Center Extender or Xbox 360 to stream digital audio, video, and TV straight to your home theater system without the interference of wires. This means you can access video and audio files anywhere on your home network.
One drawback to wireless home theater systems, however, is that they're less reliable than those using wires. While setting up a wireless speaker system is often as simple as just taking it out of the box and turning it on, certain sound mixes will show distortions that wouldn't happen on a wired system. Wireless distribution of files can also sometimes be buggy. Fortunately, this gap between the two system types has narrowed greatly in recent years. For most applications, you'd need to be a serious audiophile to tell the difference.
While it's not possible to make systems for home consumers totally wireless at this time, the added convenience of dispensing with wires can be a big boon to the average home theater user. You'll be able to move your speakers around as you choose, without worrying about wire locations or how to hide unsightly cables. Wireless access to files mean that you can now play things that were formerly only available through the computer on your main screen. If you're thinking about adding to your home theater system, think about going wireless, for convenience and simplicity.
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