How to Install a Wireless Home Theater System

How to Install a Wireless Home Theater System


One of the biggest problems with home theaters is that they require lots of unsightly wires. Unless your home has been pre-wired for speaker hookups, you'll probably have to come up with creative ways to hide home theater wires. One of the easiest ways to do this is to eliminate wires altogether and install a wireless home theater system.


1). Install the wireless transmitter near the receiver of your home theater. The transmitter will need to be wired to both the left and right channel audio outputs of your home theater. This unit will also need access to its own power outlet or spot on a surge-protected power cord.

2). Remove the regular wiring from the various speakers around the room. Some wireless systems require that you wire the rear speakers to the wireless receiver. In these systems, you aren't going totally wireless, but you do use shorter wires because not every speaker will need to be wired to the audio output of the home theater.

3). Wire your speakers to the receiver. Some wirelesssetups have a small receiver for each speaker that either attaches directly to it or sits on the floor under the speaker. In some systems, you'll need to double check that the proper receiver is wired to the correct speaker (i.e. the right channel receiver goes to the speaker that handles the right side of the stereo image).

4). Power up the wireless unit and play a DVD to check the connections. Some wireless systems have channel switches on both the transmitter and receivers, so check to be sure they are set to the same channel.

5). Wire other media players, like your stereo, to the extra inputs of the wireless transmitter. Most units have two or three different possibilities for input sources so your wireless system can work on both your home theater and your stereo. Remember that you'll have to change the input selection by hand whenever you want to switch from one input to the other.