Exceptional Innovation to Sell Lifemedia Servers Directly to Consumers

Exceptional Innovation, makers of Lifeware Media Center entertainment and automation products, will begin selling two media servers directly to consumers, the company announced at CES.

The entry-level LMS-100 and LMS-150 Lifemedia servers will be the first stand-alone products offered directly to consumers. In the past, EI has been focused on the custom channel, but the company has "always been interested in expanding the overall market for home automation and Media Center-based solutions," says EI vice president of marketing Mike Seamons.

"We [the industry] still have a lot of work to do to expand awareness of these types of technologies."

Seamons says that EI has invested heavily to promote Media Center solutions to the masses in order to grow the overall market. "We want to reduce the burden on our authorized dealers, who spend a lot of energy just getting their foot in the door," Seamons says.

"Making the core technology readily available to consumers helps dealers sell the ultimate whole-house experience."

EI's new entry-level servers do not have built-in automation ports like the higher-end products have, but EI has a special module available only through dealers that adds automation capabilities.

Although EI has worked with Best Buy on the ConnectedLife.Home package, EI had never before sold products directly to consumers via the Internet.

EI announced the Lifemedia servers in May, and added support for four CableCards In September.

The Lifemedia LMS-100, which handles digital media such as pictures, videos, TV shows, movies and music in up to five zones in your home, is priced at $2500. The unit features a 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM, 500 GB of storage, operating on Windows Vista.

Meanwhile, the Lifemedia LMS-150 has dual internal CableCARD-enabled tuners that can simultaneously access multiple forms of broadcast content, including two live high-definition digital cable feeds. The LMS-150 is $3500 and has many of the same features as the LMS-100.

In all, the Lifemedia Server line includes 16 models, ranging from the new LMS-100 unit up to the LMS-754 which retails for $15,500.