Construction Industry Trends
February 2006
Multi-room Audio Goes Mainstream
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Since its release last April by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the Multi-Room Audio Cabling Standard (CEA-2030) has become one of the organization’s hottest sellers. And as interest in multi-room audio continues to increase among home builders and home buyers alike, it looks like sales of the standard will continue to remain steady.
The first standard to cover multi-room audio released by CEA, CEA-2030 provides builders with guidelines on how to install wiring that enables the distribution of audio throughout a home. It is designed to complement Residential Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard (ANSI/TIA-570-B-2004), a widely accepted standard developed by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) that has led to the widespread practice of providing wiring for multiple telecommunication services, such as phone, Ethernet and cable TV, throughout newly built houses.
“A lot of people nowadays expect to see cable and phone jacks and Ethernet ports in most of the rooms in new homes,” says Dave Wilson, director of engineering and standards, CEA. “The members of the committee [the Audio Systems Committee, which was responsible for developing CEA-2030] wanted to see it become just as common to have audio distributed throughout the house so that homeowners could have speakers in every room, if they wanted it.”
Currently only offered by approximately five percent of home builders, multi-room audio is quickly becoming a differentiator for discerning home buyers. And CEA believes that as the organization’s new standard becomes increasingly adopted by the building community, the prevalence of multi-room audio will continue to increase.
With multi-room audio capabilities installed in their houses, homeowners can distribute audio throughout their home, and control the audio experience from a central location. They can also use it for specific rooms to support applications such as home theater systems. Since the cabling is run through the walls, there is no need to worry about hiding cables; instead, the homeowners simply plug their equipment into the provided jacks, just as they would a telephone.
By following the standard, home builders will be able to provide their customers with an easy-to-use system that works with most, if not all, end-user equipment. “The standard will help ensure that there’s some common level of functionality from home to home. Also, to the extent that homes become wired in a standardized manner, it will become easier for consumers to install their own systems within a pre-wired home,” says Wilson.
With the successful release of CEA-2030 behind them, Audio Systems Committee members are now working on a recommended practice designed to help users optimally install speakers in homes. “CEA-2030 is a standard that’s meant to define how you wire a home and where the wires would run to,” Wilson explains. “But it doesn’t talk much about speaker installation. What the group is trying to do now is come up with a recommended practice of things that you need to take into account when you install speakers in a home in order to get the best sound in a room.”
Wilson expects the Audio Systems Committee will have the recommended practice ready for release this summer. In the meantime, homebuilders can join the more than one hundred other builders who have purchased the standard by visiting store.ihs.com.
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