If anyone ever doubted just how much Americans love to entertain themselves with music, look no further than Apple's iPod ... and ... at the growing consumer electronics category known as multiroom audio.
Slowly and steadily over the past few years, technologies such as distributed audio have risen to become a highly desirable home amenity for thousands of new homebuyers seeking the latest entertainment option for their families.
According to statistics from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), more than ever, new homes are now being built with client-pleasing features such as multiroom audio and structured wiring.
Quantifying the growth of multiroom audio are numbers from a recent NAHB/CEA study indicating that multiroom audio system penetration in single-family new homes has reached 12 percent, a figure that is up more than 4 percent from the previous year.
Setting the Standards
In reaction to the surging popularity of the category, the CEA is moving quickly to develop and implement a unified set of values that result with specific criteria that can be followed by equipment installers and new-home builders across the country.
Toward that end, the CEA is developing a set of multi-room audio wiring standards to eliminate any sort of confusion surrounding the format, says Peter Hoagland, chair of the CEA's Multiroom Audio Video Council, and a member of Carson City, Nev.-based loudspeaker manufacturer BG Corporation's marketing and media relations team.
"The purpose was to bring clarity and consensus to the many different ways that multiroom audio can be wired," says Hoagland.
"We discovered that others were attempting to define a standard for multiroom audio, and we felt that we could do a better and more thorough job of it."
The CEA has been working on the standard since the fourth quarter of 2004, and it is targeting a completion date of March 2005 to introduce the proposed criterion to the CEA Standards Forum, which will be held in San Antonio, Texas. Industry analysts speculate that some of the infrastructure standards the board is considering include Cat 5 cabling and line-level low-voltage connections. Analysts conclude that these technologies will help equipment manufacturers and installation professionals keep costs as low as possible.
Hoagland says among the many reasons for developing a standard is that products and technologies tend to become more readily accepted once people understand their benefits. He adds that because of the CEA's position within the electronics industry, it is the most logical entity to address the issue of standardizing multiroom audio wiring.