“All I want for Christmas is my two front speakers, my two front speakers, my two front speakers!” You can just hear the little third-graders singing it now, can’t you? Ah, the innocence of youth. What all the nerdy kids really want is wireless speakers, and lucky for them, Santa is here to bring it to them.

“Santa” in this case comes in the form of Kleer, an Ottawa, Canada–based chip company that makes the KLR3012 chip, a neat little device that snips the wires off your stereo speakers, headphones, iPod, and other audio gear. It’s what marketing people call enabling technology – not a product by itself but a vital ingredient in some desirable products, indeed.

Kleer’s KLR3012 chip works by converting normal stereo audio into radio waves in the 2.4-GHz part of the spectrum, and then converting it back. Typically, you’d put one of these chips in your audio playback unit (think stereo receiver, TV cable box, MP3 player, etc.) and another chip in the speakers, headphones, or ear buds. Voila! Wireless audio playback from a distance.