Blackfire Research is proud to have their FireConnect Multi-room Technology in the new Pioneer Fayola FS-W50 Wireless Home Theatre System.
The Pioneer Fayola FS-W50 Wireless Home Theatre System is comprised of two wireless front speakers, a wireless subwoofer, and a main controller unit. The system is “wireless, elegant and extremely versatile.” Besides a power cord, no other physical connections are required, since the system is wireless. With built-in dual-band Wi-Fi, you can access your entire music library, wirelessly, through streaming services like Tidal, Spotify and Deezer, internet radio stations and locally stored music. The FS-W50 also features Chromecast built-in, Airplay, and Bluetooth to accommodate all streaming needs.
The Pioneer Fayola FS-W50 Wireless Home Theatre System is perfect for watching movies or television in surround sound. All you need is a second pair of wireless satellites – the streaming receiver of the FS-W50 is able to decode all current sound formats and automatically adapts to the available speakers. Your television and any existing A/V players can be integrated with the FS-W50 via the ultra-HD-capable HDMI connector panel.
For a full review of The Pioneer Fayola FS-W50 Wireless Home Theatre System, as well as more information on FireConnect Multi-room Technology, check out the review below from AV Hub.
It’s Halloween! Are you planning on dressing up to go trick or treating? How about visiting that creepy, abandoned Victorian at the end of your block, or contacting departed spirits via Ouija Board? Perhaps that’s a bit too spooky…If you’re looking for a fright this Halloween, look no further than your own living room! Here is our list of the top 5 horror movies to watch in surround sound this Halloween!
The 2004 American remake of the Japanese film Ju-on: The Grudge was a box office smash. The Grudge is a curse that is born when someone dies in the grip of extreme rage (or sorrow), materializing, and killing those in it’s path. Therefore, the Grudge is constantly being reborn, passing from victim to victim in an endless train of terror. The Grudge makes a clicking/gurgling sound when on the prowl, and your surround sound system will pick up every chilling note. Not to mention, the piercing, high-pitched noises that pervade the soundtrack, as well as all the banging and crashing that goes hand in hand with fighting off an unstoppable force of evil.
This Spanish horror film is as beautifully shot as it is creepy. Filmed on the rocky coast of northern Spain, The Orphanage chronicles the story of Laura, a former child orphan, her husband, and adopted son. Together, they move into the orphanage where Laura grew up to reopen the facility and cater to disabled children. But her son begins to act strangely, claiming to see a masked child, and soon goes missing. The film features an exceptional soundtrack and lots of mysterious banging noises that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Jennifer Kent’s 2014 masterpiece about a widowed mother and her young son who are tormented by a monster known simply as “The Babadook,” was a commercial and critical success due to the actors’ performances, Kent’s screenplay and direction, and the overall thrilling, yet heartfelt story, loaded with symbolism. The film features “a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track that is layered with creepy sounds, atmospherics, and great surround activity…The overall presentation does so many things right, setting the stage for a story that is sure to send chills down your spine.” (Home Theater Shack)
Sure, “in space no one can hear you scream,” but your surround sound system will pick up every eerie note in this 1979 Sci-Fi/Horror classic. With a musical score composed by Jerry Goldsmith (Planet of the Apes) and performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, Goldsmith envisioned a score filled with romanticism and lyrical mystery that would build throughout the film, culminating in suspense and fear. Nominated for numerous awards including a Golden Globe for Best Original Score, a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album, and a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, we’d say that Goldsmith’s score was out of this world.
The horror-comedy film, The Cabin in the Woods, follows five friends who travel to an isolated cabin deep in (you guessed it) the woods. Their relaxing vacation soon turns nightmarish when they fall victim to zombies and two technicians who manipulate the ongoing events from an underground facility. From the audio side: “Footsteps thump solidly from every direction, a whirling chain scythes through the air splitting from front to rears with exceptional clarity, and the drip drip of falling water in the forest is heard with pinpoint accuracy…There is no generic 70’s sounding mono music to warn us that a bad guy is creeping up behind the unsuspecting teens, but rather the score floods its way into the audience, creating a mood of suspense and horror without coming right out and giving everything away, as can be so common.” (Home Theater Review)
You’re favorite horror film didn’t make the cut? Share yours in the comments section below!
There was plenty of big tech news to come out of IFA this past September – from voice AI alliances, to the unveiling of Sony’s venture into the smart speaker realm – the end of 2017 has given us a glimpse into what innovations we can look forward to in 2018. A popular trend we noticed at IFA was the expansion of wireless technologies – from headphones, to speakers and smart phones – wireless capabilities are evolving from a simple point-to-point connection (Bluetooth) to more complex multi-room, multi-channel streaming over standard Wi-Fi. We found that the war between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for wireless connectivity is still being fought, but some concessions have been made (for example, new Marshall Headphones Bluetooth speakers have added Wi-Fi for multi-room capabilities, signaling an acknowledgement of the limitations of Bluetooth.)
One headline in particular caught our eye during IFA regarding the Bluetooth capabilities in the new Moto X4 smart phone, which allows users to link the phone with up to four devices simultaneously. According to CNET, “[t]his is the first phone that lets you broadcast your music to multiple different Bluetooth devices at once. You can connect the phone to four different speakers or headphones — of any kind, as long as they have an A2DO profile — and play the music in sync across all four.” This technology is being lent to Motorola by French startup, Tempow, who specialize in multi-Bluetooth audio and hope to see their version of Bluetooth embedded into smart TVs in the near future to achieve “surround sound-like capabilities” in the living room.
The truth is, even with the added ability to connect to more than one device, Bluetooth still has too many drawbacks as a wireless standard to fuel the smart home of the future. For example, you’ll experience interruptions in your music if you get a call or text while using your phone as a source device; there are severe range limitations (around 30 feet), and it produces low quality sound (Bluetooth uses “lossy data compression,” which means that it encodes its data in inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent its content. This creates a more garbled sound quality and makes Bluetooth audio devices more vulnerable to dropouts.)
Wi-Fi, on the other hand, has a much longer range than Bluetooth (roughly 100 feet inside, and up to 300 feet outside) so you can use one system throughout the entire home and extend it into your backyard if you place your router in a central location. Not only can Wi-Fi connect to more than four speakers at a time to create a real 5.1 surround sound system, it can support multi-room systems and multiple channels, which Bluetooth can not. This means that within your wireless home entertainment system, you can actually create a system of speakers, such as “left,” “right,” “center,” and “stereo.” You can also choose to play one speaker, multiple speakers, or all of your speakers at any given time, without always having to reconfigure the devices. Wi-Fi systems also tend to support superior sound quality because they have a wider bandwidth than Bluetooth and it uses a lossless codec, which Bluetooth does not. Therefore, Wi-Fi can support high resolution and lossless audio without significant lag. So for true surround sound in your living room, or anywhere else in your home, Wi-Fi is the best and only wireless standard option. For more information about the differences between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, check out this blog post.
Tempow’s multi-Bluetooth technology in the new Moto X4 smart phone has gotten some people excited, especially when it comes to situations where Wi-Fi isn’t available, like at a park or the beach. But in the home, the overall limitations of Bluetooth as a wireless standard prevents it from achieving what Wi-Fi already does. Need we say more?
This past November, Japanese electronics manufacturer, Onkyo, unveiled the LS7200 3D Soundbar System featuring FireConnectby Blackfire Research, as part of their growing Envision Cinema product family. The LS7200 is a three-piece, 5.1.2 surround sound system, made up of a slim, 53mm wall-mountable soundbar, a wireless subwoofer, and an AV center control unit, which includes four HDMI inputs to connect all your media devices, such as Blu-Ray players, streaming boxes, and video game consoles.
The three-piece LS7200 offers key advantages over other soundbar systems: not only does it use FireConnect to perfect multiroom distribution of wireless audio to FireConnect-compatible wireless speakers, the LS7200 will support Spotify, Connect, TuneIn, and Tidal, so you’ll have all your favorite music right at your fingertips. Onkyo’s “AccuEQ Room Acoustic Calibration tailors sound to individual spaces, adjusting essential speaker conditions such as output level, distance, and crossover” (eu.onkyo.com), so you’ll always experience incredible sound in any room or configuration.
Inside the 53mm soundbar, “you’ll find two speakers drivers for each left, right and centre channel as well single height speakers to create 3D sound effects via Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. The LS7200 also boasts a Surround Enhancer mode that creates ‘virtual rear speakers’ to help give the illusion sound is coming from behind you” (pocket-lint.com). Additionally, the LS7200 offers object-based sound for movies, as well as a deeply satisfying stereo performance with a choice of network audio options.
Whether streaming music throughout your home or watching your favorite movie in surround sound, Onkyo LS7200 3D Soundbar System is the perfect addition to your wireless home entertainment system. The LS7200 will be available starting in January 2017.
For more information, check out this Onkyo Press Release, and news from Techradar and Pocket-Lint:
