The Wireless Speaker and Audio Association (WiSA) has announced the new ‘WiSA Ready’ certificate for TVs, game consoles, computers and other products. A USB transmitter should also be released later this year.
WiSA certificate and USB transmitter
WiSA is a protocol for the wireless transmission of high-quality audio between a source and a receiver. This is possible, for example, between a compatible television and a compatible WiSA speaker. The protocol supports high-resolution audio with a maximum of eight channels.
The organization behind WiSA has now created the WiSA Ready certificate with which entertainment sources such as TVs, games consoles and computers can be equipped. The certificate lets users know that these sources offer the possibility to stream 8-channel high-quality audio wirelessly to WiSA certified speakers, using an external WiSA USB transmitter.
Although different products from brands like LG, Klipsch, Denon, Marantz, JBL, Microsoft and Harman will receive the label, they do not have built-in streaming capabilities. You therefore always need the external USB dongle. According to the organization behind the WiSA standard, the USB transmitter should simply be connected to the certified sources and should appear on the market in the fourth quarter of 2018. The price has not yet been announced.