WiSA Technologies Stock

WISA Technologies, Inc. and its subsidiaries (WiSA) deliver wireless sound technology for intelligent devices and next generation home entertainment systems.

The company sells modules, which wirelessly transmit and receive audio directly to speakers. Additionally, the company plans to license its proprietary software technology, embedded in the company's wireless modules, to other companies who can then embed the company's technology into other Wi-Fi enabled smart devices. The segment of the wireless audio market that WiSA focuses on is consisted of scalable multichannel solutions with levels of latency that are low enough to synchronize with video. The term multichannel refers to the use of multiple audio tracks to reconstruct a sound field using multiple speakers.

WiSA sells custom semiconductor chips and wireless modules to a growing list of consumer electronics customers, including major brands in the consumer electronics industry.

Business Focus

The company's primary business focus is to enable mainstream consumers and audio enthusiasts to experience high quality wireless immersive audio. The company intends to continue selling its proprietary wireless modules to consumer electronics companies while also expanding the company's focus to implement a lower-cost solution by porting the company's software onto commercially available internet of things ('IoT') modules with integrated Wi-Fi technology.

WiSA Association

The company's wholly-owned subsidiary, WiSA, LLC, operates the WiSA Association, which is an association of brands, manufacturers, and influencers within the consumer electronics industry, with the purpose of promoting a standardized method of interoperability between wireless audio components using WiSA's technology. The WiSA Association creates, maintains and manages specifications for wireless interoperability that are available to all WiSA Association members. For products with a WiSA Association certification, the WiSA Association also creates, maintains, and manages testing criteria and specifications for all products to be listed, marketed and sold. WiSA-certification is an industry-wide 'stamp of approval' certifying that a product is interoperable with other products in the WiSA ecosystem and has passed several high-performance tests ensuring interoperability and wireless performance standards are met. As the sole owner of WiSA, LLC, the company certify all WiSA Association products.

In 2018, the company introduced the WiSA Ready certification. The WiSA Ready certification identifies entertainment sources - such as TVs, gaming systems or computers - that are equipped to deliver up to eight (8) channels of HD audio to WiSA-certified speakers when connected with a WiSA Universal Serial Bus ('USB') transmitter. This program simplifies consumer setup and reduces costs by replacing AV receivers or wireless hubs with a low-cost USB accessory. Using WiSA Ready products allows consumers to more simply and conveniently enjoy wireless multi-channel sound, eliminating the clutter, wires, and complicated installs generally required to create immersive audio experiences. LG Electronics and Hisense have introduced TV and projector product lines that have been certified WiSA Ready. Additionally, TCL, Skyworth, and Bang & Olufsen have built WiSA's modules into some of their TVs.

WiSA-certified products are required to use WiSA modules in order to meet the standards set by the WiSA Association. As a result, WiSA Association members purchase modules from the company in order to build their products to meet such standards.

Among WiSA-certified products, consumers will be able to outfit their home entertainment system with WiSA-certified speakers and components from any participating vendor with the assurance that the devices will interoperate and provide high quality wireless HD surround sound.

The WiSA Association manages logo usage and trademark guidelines, investigates alternative markets, connects brands to manufacturing resources, and provides industry leadership in solving the challenges facing the home theater and commercial markets in the integration of wireless audio technology.

As part of building the category of immersive audio and driving consumer awareness, WiSA has created the WiSA Wave, which includes a number of online direct-to-consumer marketing programs. WiSA Association has dramatically increased consumer awareness, as measured by web traffic through WiSA's websites. There were approximately 1.4 million web visitors in 2022. WiSA utilizes Google analytics to identify and measure unique user web traffic. WiSA Wave activities have expanded to include joint marketing WiSA products with retailers, the creation of WiSA storefronts on retailer websites, retailer co-op ads, and multibrand ads supporting WiSA members. Additionally, WiSA uses the WiSA Wave to drive the promotion and sale of the Platin Audio line of immersive audio speaker systems, a brand of speakers designed to promote WiSA Certified functionality at new price points and product performance levels.

Modules

WiSA has designed wireless modules that provide high performance wireless audio for the company's customers to integrate into their products, such as a speaker, TV, media hubs and USB or HDMI dongles. These modules include the company's custom semiconductors with its intellectual property ('IP') built in, as well as a Wi-Fi radio for communications. By designing and selling these modules, the company can reduce its customers' design expense, accelerate their time-to-market cycle, and reduce the cost of each module. WiSA offers both a 'TX' module to transmit the audio from a host device like a media hub, TV or dongle to WiSA-enabled speakers and an 'RX' model for speakers that receive the wireless audio signal and processes it for audio play out.

Modules for Consumer Products

WiSA's TX modules are targeted for integration into TVs, AV receivers, media hubs and USB or HDMI dongles. WiSA's transmitter, with its integrated antenna, is designed to support rooms as large as 10 meters by 10 meters with uncompressed, 24 bit audio up to 96 kHz sample rate. The module supports a simple interface, with Inter-IC Sound ('I2S') or USB audio and control. In addition, WiSA's technology has been approved by Digital Content Protection, LLC, the licensing agency for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, as an audio-only output technology for retransmission of audio content.

WiSA's receiver interfaces to a digital amplifier and is designed to be integrated directly into a home theater speaker. The four (4) printed circuit board (PCB) antennas simplify system integration while providing robust reception of 24 bit audio up to 96 kHz sample rates virtually anywhere within a 10 meter by 10 meter space. It supports one or two separate audio outputs via I2S. An optional interface on the receiver module can be enabled to configure the speaker type and provide volume/mute control at the speaker. Alternatively, the speaker type can be assigned at the factory for preconfigured Home Theater in a Box applications.

Category Defining Wireless Audio

The company's first generation wireless audio technology delivers industry leading eight channels of uncompressed audio directly to the speakers in 24 bit and up to 96 kHz sample rates. This means that a consumer can experience audio exactly as it was mastered in the studio. WiSA's technology supports surround sound systems up to 7.1 or 5.1.2 for Dolby Atmos configurations.

Alternative technologies, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi standards were not designed to transmit fixed low latency audio that is synchronized to video. However, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi standards can work well for audio-only wireless transmission, when video is not a part of the listening experience. In audio-only applications, latency is less critical and audio data can be buffered in memory to ensure proper speaker synchronization even when data retransmissions are needed in today's congested wireless environments. In video applications, retransmissions add to latency. Standard Bluetooth and Wi-Fi standards have long variable latency that can exceed acceptable audio to video synchronization and make quality multichannel audio experience unachievable. A few custom silicon-based solutions exist today that improve on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi standards based performance, but compared to WiSA, such products have longer latencies, lower performing speaker synchronization, and are limited to 2-4 audio channels and often only support 16 bit CD quality audio.

WiSA's technology roadmap includes proprietary software that will enable standard Wi-Fi protocol to support multi-channel audio for video applications, while permitting WiSA to leverage Wi-Fi's lower chip and module cost structure. WiSA's first generation technology was designed for the mid to high end home theater market and offers a unique feature set that is expected to be included in new product designs for years. WiSA's new Wi-Fi strategy enables the company to compete in the entry-level home theater market at Bluetooth price points, while delivering superior multi-channel performance for higher volume applications. The company's recently announced Discovery module is the first product that integrates WiSA's new software, which enables a transceiver module to keep up to four independent wireless audio channels synchronized in a room size up to 10 meters square. The Discovery modules is ideally suited for entry level home entertainment systems, including sound bars, TVs, subwoofers and Dolby Atmos applications.

WiSA Customers

WiSA sells wireless modules containing custom semiconductor chips to a growing list of consumer electronics customers, including major brands, such as Bang & Olufsen, KEF, LG, Harman International, a division of Samsung, Savant, Skyworth and System Audio. The use of the company's products by well-known consumer electronics brands will provide an opportunity to create wireless audio products that are simple to install and perform at high levels. Brands, such as Bang & Olufsen and Harman have chosen WiSA technology to drive their wireless home audio/theater product assortments. Their leadership has brought credibility to the technology and paved the way at retail for other brands to follow.

Strategy

The key elements of the company's strategy are to improve recognition of the company's WiSA Certification brand and the WiSA standard brand; provide excellent products and services to the company's customers and members; make sure the company's technology is accessible to many consumers by having the company's technology in consumer electronics devices that sell at a variety of price points; expand market awareness of wireless multi-channel hi-fidelity audio experience availability; enhance and protect the company's IP portfolio; invest in highly qualified personnel; and build innovative products alongside the world's leading consumer electronics companies.

The company sells its modules in relatively small quantities. As new customers introduce WiSA-enabled products and customers introduce second and third-generation WiSA-enabled products, the company expects that orders for the company's modules will increase proportionally. With larger orders, the company can take advantage of economies of scale and improve gross margins on the company's modules.

Research and Development

As of March 14, 2023, the company's research and development department consisted of 29 dedicated employees. WiSA's engineering team has a wide range of expertise, capable of developing all levels of product design, from Application Specific Integrated Circuits ('ASIC') to modules to finished products. WiSA research and development has and will continue developing trade secrets for Digital Signal Processing ('DSP'), RF design and testing of WiSA technologies.

WiSA has developed multiple ASICs and certified modules for integration into multiple wireless audio designs by ODMs, which are shipping to consumers. The ASIC hardware solution uses a high-performance proprietary network protocol for transmission of multi-channel audio.

WiSA is also shipping and developing modules that are Wi-Fi compatible. The Software ('SW') solution enables multi-channel audio capabilities on off the shelf IoT modules running RTOS and future Linux/Android based multimedia systems. The software solution uses a Wi-Fi network for the transmission of multi-channel audio. WiSA released to production a low cost 2.4GHz IoT module supporting (5) audio channels and in the process of porting the company's software to a 5GHz IoT module in 2023. The company has engaged an Indian design center to focus on Android integration of the core SW for embedded TV applications.

The company's research and development expenses were $7,144,000 for the year ended December 31, 2022.

Sales Channels and Customers

WiSA sells modules and integrated circuits ('ICs') directly to OEM brands worldwide which in turn, sell their system level products to end customers through a vast channel of retailers and dealer networks. Internationally known brands, such as Bang & Olufsen, Harman International, a division of Samsung, LG, System Audio, KEF, and many others are among the company's customers, with products aimed at the wireless home theater market. Most of these brands sell through retailers store fronts and online e-tail.

Marketing and Advertising

Effective and consistent marketing and advertising is critical as the company grows its wireless audio solutions. The company has worked with multiple PR agencies on establishing effective messaging to face all segments within the company's category, including press, brands, reviewers, retailers and consumers.

Intellectual Property

As of March 14, 2023, the company had 13 issued and 10 pending U.S. patents covering the company's technology. The company's issued patents expire at various times from September 25, 2027 through March 1, 2040.

History

The company was founded in 2010. It was incorporated in Delaware in 2010. The company was formerly known as Summit Semiconductor, LLC and changed its name to Summit Semiconductor, Inc. and converted from a Delaware Limited Liability Company to a Delaware Corporation in 2017. Further, the company changed its name to Summit Wireless Technologies, Inc. in 2018. Furthermore, the company changed its name to WiSA Technologies Inc. in March 2022.