Roku Smart Soundbars can now be used to make surround sound systems

Enlarge / The soundbar includes the technology of a Roku Ultra inside, so it doubles as a streaming device. (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Streaming giant Roku continues to lean heavily into the audio side of home entertainment. Today, the company announced that it is bringing surround sound capabilities to its Roku Smart Soundbar through a software update that will start hitting devices this February.

The surround sound expansion will let users connect other Roku audio devices to the smart soundbar wirelessly. Currently, Roku has a wireless speaker bundle designed to work with Roku TVs and a wireless subwoofer that connects via Wi-Fi to Smart Soundbars already. Users will be able to connect a pair of the wireless TV speakers to the smart soundbar to create a surround sound system that they can control through the Roku remote they already have.

Roku emphasized the ease of use of this smart surround sound system, saying that the technology embedded into the smart soundbar will identify the TV speakers automatically at the start of the setup and will pair with them wirelessly. Users can then choose the position of each TV speaker in their homes, properly directing the sound that comes out of each speaker. Once set up, users can control the whole system with the remote they already use with their Roku device. There will also be new stereo sound modes that users can equip to make non-surround-sound audio sound even better through their new speaker setup.

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