08.14.2007 — Fuze Media is a startup that wanted to come up with the ultimate out-of-the-box multimedia experience, including whole-house audio and video, photo sharing, music and movie management, PVR capabilities, the works.

The result is the Fuze Media Server which starts with the FuzeBox media server hub and FuzeMini server clients. They look a lot like Media Center PCs.

Fuze insists that they aren’t. Specifically, Fuze says it is “not a control or MCE system.”

Yet the main Fuze server, the FuzeBox, is OEMed by Velocity Micro, has the same CableCard capabilities, same form factor, and same Viiv logo as one of Velocity’s Media Center PCs.

The Fuze jargon is also Media Center-like:

FUZE delivers a complete system that stores, manages, organizes, and distributes all of your digital media—to any part of the home. Live TV, recorded TV, movies, videos, music, digital photos, and more are all stored and managed centrally.

Finally, screen captures from the Fuze Media System reveal the same Media Center interface for photos and videos.

Confused by the press release, I asked marketing director Ted Archer to clarify the seeming incongruities. Here’s what he had to say:

We are based on Vista and are technically a “Windows Media Center.” However, we say that we’re NOT a Media Center for three key reasons.

First, we don’t use their UI [user interface]. 

Second, the user NEVER has access to the desktop, which is something that enhances the reliability on our end. This enables us to eliminate the opportunity to download viruses, etc.

Finally, our implementation includes true whole-home capability (including built-in whole-home audio, which is something that Media Center doesn’t deliver).

While these three points might seem like minor issues, they really aren’t. What they add up to is reliability and greater whole-home capability. Media Center was designed as a single location system with extender capability—but no built-in multizone audio. Our system does have built-in whole-home capability (audio included).

So, while you are technically correct that we are Vista/MCE-based, we’d prefer to be known as the system that delivers on the promises of Media Center—not another Media Center implementation that delivers a suboptimal consumer experience.

Whole-House Audio

Indeed, Fuze’s multiroom audio solution is a big deal. I haven’t seen anything like it. I don’t know of another company that has developed a whole-house music system specifically for Media Center. There is software out there (Lifeware and CasaTools to name a couple) that enables a Media Center to communicate two-way with established multiroom audio systems like those from Russound, NuVo and Niles.

But they require the user to buy and program one of those third-party subsystems.

Fuze’s solution is truly a Media Center-based audio distribution system. (Sorry, I’m not supposed to call it a Media Center).

Besides the enabling software that runs on the PC (I’m not supposed to call it that either), Fuze provides a variety of in-wall control options.

FuzeTunes is an amplified, in-wall audio controller (15- or 45-watts/channel) that requires only one run of Cat 5 for power, control signals and media distribution.

The control, power and music delivery over the Cat 5 cable is analog—not TCP/IP. “Standard power over Ethernet (PoE) doesn’t provide enough power to power the amps,” says Archer. “Using our solution, you get quality, higher-powered amps in-wall without needing an electrician.”

The technology comes from Pragmatic Communications, well known in the commercial and security markets for delivering multichannel media, plus power and control signals, over Cat 5.

Cat 5 from the FuzeTunes feed into adapters—three per adapter-- that connect to the Media Server’s USB ports. With 6 USB ports, the Media Server could serve up to 18 remote zones (19 in all if you count the server itself)—not quite yet, but soon.

Zones can be controlled independently or in groups (more below).

Fuze says that the music stays synched, even in “PARTY” mode when all zones are playing the same song. Latency shouldn’t be an issue: The music responds quickly to keypad touches, and you won’t hear an echo as you would if the synchronization were the least bit off.

Audio Controls

FuzeTunes is very spare, with four buttons (and an IR receiver for controlling via remote): SOURCE, MUTE, VOLUME UP and DOWN.

The SOURCE button toggles through playlists stored on the Media Server.

If music is already playing elsewhere in the house and you press the SOURCE button, it plays the current playlist. To skip a track, press the source button. Don’t like the playlist? Press and hold the button to get to the next play list. Press the SOURCE button to skip a track….

If nothing is playing elsewhere when you hit SOURCE, the Media Server delivers the playlist associated with the particular room.

To turn off a room, simply press the MUTE button. Or, press and hold MUTE to shut down the zone altogether without disrupting the other zones.

If you want to turn off all zones that are currently synched with yours, just point an IR remote at the keypad and hit STOP.

Being able to control Media Center zones independently or in groups, without a third-party multiroom audio system, is a really big deal.

It’s an even bigger deal that you can do it on a simple four-button keypad.

Now, if you want metadata, Fuze offers the FuzeTouch, a four-inch touchpanel (320 x 240 pixels). You get all the rich two-way interaction you would expect, like scrolling through artists, albums, songs, etc. You also get similar control options as the FuzeTouch.

The FuzeTouch doesn’t have an amp built in, so you can either bring your own amp or use in conjunction with the FuzeTunes.

UPB Audio Control over the Powerlines

This one’s really cool, but then I’m more into automation than audio. The Easy Control UPB in-wall and tabletop controllers can operate the audio system without any new wires. UPB (Universal Powerline Bus) is a robust two-way communications protocol that works over the powerlines. To date, I believe it has only been used for controlling lights and on/off appliances.

“No one has done this for audio,” says Bob Silver, VP of sales and marketing. I’m pretty sure he’s correct.

Fuze is using it to control the audio system. Except for the amplification, the Easy Control UPB can do anything the FuzeTunes Cat 5 controller can do: change the volume, toggle through sources, etc. As with the touchscreen, Easy Control works in conjunction with FuzeTunes amplified keypads, or with any centralized amp of the customer’s choosing.

Here’s the kicker. The controller also has a light switch on it. Simply replace an existing switch with the Easy Control, and you’ll get the audio controls without losing the light switch. No, the lighting portion is not automated via UPB, but perhaps in the future.

Fuze’s Approach to Media Center

Fuze uses a few of the traditional Media Center interfaces such as photos, video and the electronic programming guide, but the rest of it belongs to Fuze—most notably the home page and the music functions.

Fuze delivers its own home page for four key reasons, according to Archer: The company does not believe it is intuitive; it allows too-easy access to the desktop; it is not flexible enough for developers; and it is not designed for a whole-home experience.

“With their UI, users can exit Media Center and/or get to options that Fuze software prevents users from accessing—things like TV type, codecs, device drivers, control panel settings, etc,” Archer says. “By controlling these things from the home page … we can ensure a consistent user experience.”

Also, Fuze wanted complete control over the home page of its Media Server. “We have no control over what third party or Microsoft features are added to the Media Center’s home page,” says Archer. “This is where more people have issues with Media Center. For example, they download something from Online Spotlight that requires Flash or Java. Users then need to download additional things to get them to work.”

He says that the quality of Spotlight varies greatly. “We qualify and make sure everything runs before exposing it to the user. Microsoft does not allow us to do that from the home page.”

Also, since Fuze is built specifically for multiroom audio, it would make sense to have a more robust audio interface conducive to whole-house music—something that doesn’t come with Media Center.

From the Fuze home page, users can see what music is playing in which zones, and usurp control of each zone.

As for video distribution, Fuze has done some tricks to provide—as it says in the PR—“DRM-friendly whole-home HD video.” Here’s what that means, in Archer’s words:

Like everyone else, we’re waiting on Pika [Media Center Extender technology, now only available via Xbox]. When it comes to broadcast HD (the majority of what users will record), we ship the content throughout the home.

But, when we’re talking about premium HD channels (ESPN, HBO, etc.) … CableCARD makes things difficult for everyone. But, we’ve come up with a creative solution that dealers and users alike appreciate.  We’ll use this solution until Pika allows us (and everyone else) to accomplish the ideal. 

Our solution is this: For non-broadcast HD, we’ve developed a dual-recording “mirroring” system that automatically creates duplicate HD/480p recordings. This means that, when HD recordings are desired away from a TV where the recording was created, we will have created a mirrored copy in DVD-quality 480p. The dealers we’ve spoken to find this to be an extremely creative, appropriate, and beneficial fix: It guarantees that users will have whole-home access to their content and allows us to please CableCARD folks until Pika arrives.

Pricing

Pricing for the Fuze products varies widely—around $10,000 to $25,000 depending on the configuration. Archer suggests that a system with three video zones and four audio zones would run about $22,000 total, including the FuzeBox media server, two FuzeMini clients, enterprise-grade Cisco router, audio endpoints, remotes, etc.