03.16.2009 — Autonomic Controls appears to have the first solution for integrating Pandora into a two-way control system. Users can build and play their own Internet radio stations from Crestron, AMX, NuVo and other popular controllers.

Autonomic worked closely with Pandora to create the two-way solution, which no other company currently offers, according to Autonomic principal Michael De Nigris.

While Pandora is now available through several CE-friendly products from Vudu, Chumby, Logitech (Squeezebox) and Samsung (Blu-ray players), only Autonomic gives integrators the tools to integrate the Internet radio features within a complete whole-house entertainment system.

Autonomic, best known for its rich integration with Windows Media Center, introduced the new Pandora feature at the Electronic House Expo 2009 last week.

In the demo, Autonomic principal Michael De Nigris used an AMX touchscreen to "build" an Internet radio station based on my affinity towards Simon & Garfunkel. Pandora played related songs, and I pressed the "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" icon per my musical tastes.

The Autonomic version offers all of the options available through Pandora's PC interface, for example, "Don't play this song for a month."

But in true Autonomic fashion, there's more.

Of course, the Pandora interface is part of Autonomic's full-featured entertainment platform, so users can push music to any zone of the house.

Customized radio stations can be integrated into whole-house scenes. For example, Dad's "Wake Up" mode can turn the lights on in the master bathroom and start up his customized Pandora station based on tunes from "The Who."

But that's not all. With the Autonomic software, users can build Pandora radio stations based on songs and artists from other sources, such as XM, Sirius, or the homeowner's own CD collection – basically anything with metadata.

In his own home, De Nigris's wife "will hear a song she likes on Sirius, and she goes to the NuVo keypad to create a Pandora station," he says.

The Pandora feature is available as an upgrade to Autonomic's Media Control Server (MCS) software, which provides rich two-way integration with Windows Media Center and popular control systems from AMX, Crestron, HAI, RTI, Universal Remote Control and NuVo.

Commercial Server Debuts

In other Autonomic news at EHX, the company is launching its first hardware product, the ACMS (Autonomic Commercial Media Server).

The ACMS features 7.1 audio and 12 additional music zones. It comes loaded with Autonomic's MCS media management software, but includes a few added features. Most notably, it offers options for scheduling media (good for commercial, not necessary for the home), as well system-wide synchronization.

"You can have master and slaves," says Autonomic's Michael Toscano. "You can put one in each hotel and just program one of them. They all sync up."