10.03.2008 — Of all the stories from this year's CEDIA Expo, one of the biggest has to be the explosive growth of the media server category.

At the 2007 show, there were 12 exhibitors that listed themselves under the category "Media Servers." This year there were 23.

Here are four reasons media servers are ready for mass adoption.

Hard Drive Prices are Dropping

Let's face it: a terabyte doesn't cost a lot of money anymore.

As hard drive prices decline, it opens up the media server business beyond the storage of recorded music, and makes video storage immensely practical.

This brings us to our second point.

Many New Players in the Market

The brands offering media server-related gear on the show floor at CEDIA were a mix of new faces and old.

Veteran players are promoting bigger and better servers and zone players, like Kaleidescape's new 1080p units. Brands that have previously only been audio solutions, like Sooloos, are moving into the video business.

Tangential to the entrance of new brands and offerings is a proliferation of price points. Media servers were formerly in the Rolls-Royce price range; now they're trickling down to the Mercedes or Lexus price points.

How much farther until we see Toyota pricing, where most all of your clients can have one?

Consumers Love Convenience

Let's face it; accessing your movies on a server is so much less tedious than the process of popping a DVD into the player. You know it, I know it, and your clients will know it after you demo a server for them in your showroom.

Maybe I'm just incredibly lazy, but at home, I find myself seldom choosing to watch a DVD. The movies I do watch are almost always the ones that I've backed up on my PVR from HD PPV, to watch later at our convenience.

As a result, I find myself saving my pennies and planning to join the ranks of my clients with a server system of our own.

Your customers are no different. They're busy people, too. This is all the more reason to offer them a server solution, if you don't already.

Downloads on the Horizon

A sea change is definitely in the offing.

Last year, anytime I wrote about impending HD downloads, I would get barraged by comments and emails crying "No way! Too much bandwidth! Never gonna happen!"

Well, time passes and technology advances. This year, anytime I write about alternate methods of digital delivery, such as kiosk-based downloads to flash media, I get barraged by comments and emails crying "What, I've got to go to a store!? How retro. I'll wait for downloads, thanks."

Personally, I find that shift in attitudes amongst technophiles to be telling.

Client Demand is Pushing Category Forward

I don't think anybody can deny that servers are where it's at.

Of the CI dealers that I know well, the clear majority of them already specify and install media servers.

It's only a matter of time for widespread adoption, not just due to technical advances, price drops and competitive action, but from demand coming straight from your clients.

Lee Distad is a freelance CEDIA Certified Professional Designer who offers design and process consultation to firms in the Custom Installation industry, as well as copy writing and other professional writing services. Lee’s business and industry blog can be read at http://www.leedistad.com