By far one of the biggest challenges for most people installing a home theater system is wiring the speakers — especially the surrounds because they're typically placed quite a ways from the rest. Wireless connections are an obvious solution, and at this year's CES, several manufacturers offered systems taking advantage of 2.4-GHz wireless technology to feed the surrounds. Generally, a transmitter at the front of the room sends the surround-channel signals to a receiver at the back of the room, which amplifies them and sends them to the speakers.

Panasonic's SH-FX50 kit will be available separately in April ($199) to convert the surround channels to wireless operation in three of its home theater packages debuting the same month — the SC-HT730, SC-HT830V, and SC-HT930 ($349, $399, and $499, respectively). All three systems include a five-disc DVD/CD changer, while the SC-HT830V adds a hi-fi VCR. The HT730 and HT830V have 800 watts of total power, while the HT930 comes with deluxe tower speakers and steps up to 1,000 total watts.

Samsung's HT-WP40 system (available in March, $449) boasts a total of 800 watts — 134 watts to each of the five satellite speakers and 130 watts to the subwoofer — and uses 2.4-GHz Bluetooth wireless technology to feed the surround channels. It decodes all current flavors of surround sound as well as DVD-Audio, and DVDs can be scaled up to the 720p or 1080i high-definition format.


Pioneer's HTP-4600 home theater package (available in April for $1,600) send the signals wirelessly to the single, two-channel surround speaker.

Pioneer's XW-HT1 (available February, $250) can add a surround effect to a variety of systems, not only in a traditional home theater setup but also as an add-on with a TV and a DVD player or a gaming system. The transmitter uses SRS Circle Surround II processing to prepare signals to be sent wirelessly to the single surround speaker, which has separate drivers for the left and right surround channels. Pioneer also showed the HTP-4600 (available April, $650), a home theater package utilizing wireless technology for its single surround speaker. The cylindrical, floor-standing front speakers mate well with a flat-panel TV, and the surround receiver pushes 167 watts to each of the main channels.

Kenwood's wireless kit, the RFU-6100 (available now, $300), has a 50-watt stereo amplifier and is designed to work with any brand of surround receiver and speakers.

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