03.09.2007 — The folks at DLO (Digital Lifestyle Outfitters) are visionaries. You know DLO -- the guys that make iPod accessories that have the highest attachment rate for iPods sold at retail. With all of its success at retail, though, the company still has enough sense to pay attention to the custom market.

DLO is now shipping HomeDock Pro, the custom version of its popular HomeDock Deluxe, a docking station that delivers iPod video to connected TVs.

Because consumers like it so much, custom installers have been selling and installing the Deluxe -- begrudgingly because it lacks integration features and, of course, they couldn't make money on it.

DLO listened. "This [HomeDock Pro] was made for integrators," says DLO's Mike Woods. "They wanted discrete on/off and remote in…They were using the Deluxe and sticking an IR emitter on it, which falls off, and there's another service call."

In the HomeDock Pro, dealers not only get discrete on/off and an IR port, they get serial control and margin.

The product ships with an RJ-45/DB-9 adapter, and manufacturers are just starting to build drivers for operating the product through a third-party control system.

The HomeDock Pro, which "retails" for $300 (twice as much as the Deluxe), is available only to the trade. Currently, the product is sold through the EDGE group of distributors, Capitol Sales and two members of the Digital Delivery Group: Shifting Sands and Wave Electronics.

Sonos, are you listening?