The ease, immediacy and less-mess of wireless options simply fit into our modern lives, and as more custom installers are finding, into our modern homes. Wireless audio is naturally appealing for any music enthusiast as it can allow more variety, more connectivity and more customisation into the solutions they are requesting for their homes. But, of course, it also isn’t without its share of difficulties and troublesome variables.

Mastering wireless audio can mean a lot of benefit for your business, but doing so demands understanding of both the solution’s inherent advantages, and its challenges.

Discovering What You’re Up Against
Firstly, checking the home’s current wireless situation is critical. Many homes already have a basic wireless network, even if it is only a router used for internet delivery, but wireless technology progresses very quickly and that infrastructure may not be matched to the task of supporting modern wireless home system devices. The router’s age and initial quality, the specific protocol it employs, as well as firewall settings, can make a difference.

Additionally, there are a lot of players involved in wireless delivery. The quality of listening experience your customer enjoys depends on more than just the hardware of the system you are installing and any peripheral equipment in the home. There is the local internet service provider to consider, as well as the supplemental internet content services that may be used, which could all affect the end result and performance of a system. Even looking at the likelihood of many separate and simultaneous users within a home is necessary to make sure your set-up can meet a customer’s needs.

Assessing, as much as you can, all of the outside variables in advance of beginning the design and install is a key part of offering wireless audio solutions that live up to your and your customers’ expectations.

Selecting Strategic Solutions
Not all wireless audio options are created equal. The entire sphere of solutions that employ wireless technologies is vast, and more importantly, rapidly evolving and expanding. Taking thorough stock of your options and finding those which utilise the best and most current components or technologies is an important step for wirelessly integrating audio, while still maintaining robust and reliable service. We must acknowledge that wireless operation can be far more temperamental than hardwired setups, but the aggressive innovation in recent years has taken on that challenge with surprising and impressive results. Knowing where and how these innovations have been implemented to enhance the fidelity, speed, and synchronicity of the delivered audio, means assembling a higher performing system.

Also, one important aspect to examine closely when selecting wireless audio solutions is versatility. It’s a good idea to identify systems that play well with others, whether it’s easily introducing this musical component into an existing home automation scheme, or assembling separate solutions for one cohesive ecosystem that you will now integrate into the home all together, you want this connectivity to mean superior control and user-friendliness for the homeowner, without a lot of long, painful headaches for you.

Taking the versatility idea farther, it’s also advantageous to look at utilising systems that can be configured as a combination of wired and wireless, in cases that necessitate that type of flexibility for top performance.

What You Get Out of It
So after all the homework required, what makes wireless audio worth it? Well, the growing consumer demand aside, there are a lot of benefits, and the list is growing each day.

For starters, there is the convenience and expediency of wireless audio solutions. With the right know-how, wireless jobs can be much more efficiently handled, as combating walls and dragging wire has been largely removed from the equation. This flexibility becomes increasingly important when working in listed properties where hardwiring is not an option. The result of this is pleasing for customers of course, but can also lead to a new avenue of profitability for you as it opens your availability to take on more jobs and your ability to add on to past jobs with less hassle.

Also every home is a little bit different, and every customer is unique. Wireless solutions are naturally IP-based, enabling them to more readily tap into the larger spectrum of source variety through online streamers, such as Napster, or through smoother access to all the other devices within a home, like a PC or iPad, or even a guest’s Android phone thanks to Bluetooth. The types of, and number of, IP-based source options is increasing at an exponential rate, and wireless solutions are designed to meet the challenge of those introductions with great speed and simplicity. 

A Total Package
Home audio is not, and has never been, a stagnant landscape. Innovation has been driven constantly by the demand for better, faster, more varied, and more affordable. It was these desires that pushed many audio manufacturers towards developing wireless solutions to start with, and it will be these desires that continue to offer installers great success with them as they continue to evolve.