While traditionally TVs would have built-in stereo speakers, these days a number of external loudspeakers are used to allow the viewer experience surround sound. The most commonly used 5.1 surround sound format requires setting up a total of 6 loudspeakers. The more recent 7.1 standard increases this number to 8 by adding two additional side speakers.

Consequently the setup of home theater systems has become a fairly difficult procedure. Also, long speaker wires are often unattractive. This technique applies signal processing to the audio and adds phase shifts and cues to the sound which would ordinarily be sent by the remote loudspeaker. The audio signal is then broadcast through the front speakers. Virtual surround avoids the remote speakers and simplifies the setup and also eliminates long speaker cable runs. Therefore everybody processes sound in a different way. An additional method for avoiding long speaker cord runs is to make use of wireless speaker adapters or wireless speakers. A wireless kit includes a transmitter and one or a number of wireless amplifiers. This still requires cord runs between the two speakers. More advanced wireless systems use uncompressed digital audio broadcast. A large latency would lead to an echo effect. Another option are side-reflecting loudspeakers.