Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said that he has been pushing his team for a long time to remove the HDMI cable from soundbars, implying that Sonos is working on wireless TV audio.
The new Sonos Era 300 speakers work as surround rear with Sonos Arc or Beam but not as standalone TV speakers, which would require Sonos to add an HDMI module or some kind of wireless link between the TV and speakers.
This is what Amazon, Apple and Roku are already doing with Echo, HomePod and Roku TV speakers. HomePods can connect wirelessly via WiFi to Apple TV 4K while Echo and Roku TV speakers can connect wirelessly via WiFi to a compatible Amazon Fire TV or Roku TV.
- "I’ve been pushing the team for a long time — I don’t want a wire to the soundbar at all. Let’s make it even easier," Patrick Spence, Sonos CEO, told Digital Trends.
A Sonos soundbar currently needs two cables; power and HDMI
A wireless link would make it possible to connect Sonos speakers such as a pair of Era 300 directly to a compatible media player or TV screen, although he pointed out that not many people are using their HomePods this way yet.
- "We haven’t seen a lot of people actually using (the HomePod) that way," Spence added. "Most people are still picking up a soundbar instead."
The comments line up with a rumor that Sonos has an internal 'Home Theater OS' project related to apps or experiences directly on the TV.
The key question of course is how Sonos will manage to get its technology embedded in TVs from other brands.
- Source: Digital Trends
