It’s no surprise Sonos wants to make wireless soundbars – if it doesn’t, it’s doomed

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence has said that he's hoping the company's soundbars can be even more wireless in the future, dropping even the HDMI connection to the TV. At the launch event for the Sonos Era 100 and Era 300, Spence told Digital Trends, “I’ve been pushing the team for a long time – I don’t want a wire to the soundbar at all. Let’s make it even easier.”

This is the first time we've had such an explicit comment from the company on the subject, and it's not a surprise that it's being actively pushed from the top, because almost all the best soundbars will be wireless in the future, and not in a “maybe in 10 years time” kind of way. The first ones are here now – many of the best Samsung TVs available today can wirelessly send Dolby Atmos sound to compatible Samsung soundbars, meaning you don't have to use an HDMI port to get better audio.

LG and Sony currently both have products that can send audio wirelessly to soundbars, but they're dongles that still connect to an HDMI port. With Sony, it's the Sony HT-A9 wireless speaker system; with LG, you can get an optional Wowcast dongle that beams audio to many of its soundbars, including the LG S95QR. I've also heard hints that LG is likely to launch a system like Samsung's, where Wowcast is built into its TVs, but that's not officially confirmed in any way.

But you can maybe already see the problem Sonos has with going wireless – in these cases, we're talking about having a TV and soundbar from the same manufacturer, because the wireless transmission tech will be custom in each case. HDMI is an open, neutral standard that anyone can use, but it won't be used for wireless soundbars. Companies will see going wireless as the ideal way to get you to spend more money with them specifically – if you want the cable-free connection, you'll have to buy their extra product.