6 Pop Songs Great for Audio Demos
Worst DIY Installs Ever Part 7
10 Must-Have Products for Your Next Install
6 Amazing High-End Home Theaters
Print
Email
Share
- Latest
- Subscribe
- Blogs
- Research
People On the Move: Milestone AV, Definitive Technology, JL Audio, NACE
CEDIA White Paper Examines How to Build Mobile Device Wireless Networks
Arizona Passes Statewide Alarm Licensing Law
Photos
6 Pop Songs Great for Audio Demos
Channel Vision Adds 6710, 6721 Outdoor PTZ Cameras
Ask the Advisors Will ‘Crush’ Integrators Who Don’t Do Electrical
AVC Group Adds SpeakerCraft, Proficient, Panamax/Furman; Mark Terry Out
Slideshows
Featured Topics
- Amplifiers
- Audio
- Automation & Control
- CCTV/Cameras
- Central Vacuum
- CE Pro 100
- Displays
- Distributed Audio
- Distributors
- Equipment Racks
- HDMI Corner
- Lighting
- Mounts & Lifts
- Movie Servers
- Multiroom Video
- Power Protection/Mgmt.
- Receivers
- Security
- Speakers
- Structured Wiring
- Universal Remotes
- Video
- Wire & Cable
White Papers
NuVo, Autonomic ‘Win’ EHX with Multi-Output iTunes Server
Solution blends WMA and protected iTunes content into seamless library for whole-house music distribution, six streams at a time.
From a cheap Dell PC with a sound card, NuVo can distribute multiple iTunes and WMA streams throughout the house, accessible through inexpensive NuVo touchpads.
The duo of Autonomic Controls and NuVo "won" EHX Spring 2008 if I have any say in the matter.
The two companies created an incredibly useful music management and whole-house audio solution that lets users access all of their digital content from a single library, and distribute it to any room of the house -- six streams at a time.
No big deal? Consider that the library can include typical WMA [Windows Media Audio] files as well as DRM-protected iTunes music.
The software, called Media Control Server EX (MCS-EX), was created by Autonomic Controls at the behest of NuVo.
"At home, our music was in WMA [Windows Media Audio], but my wife wanted to listen to her iPod," says NuVo president David Rodarte.
"You could get one but not the other." In other words, you have to flip between music folders, rather than select from a single library.
"It shouldn't have to work that way," Rodarte says.
Worse, in the case of NuVo's and other multiroom audio systems, when the iPod disappears from the docking station, there go the iTunes.
"The iPod dock is a great solution if you want to keep the iPod docked" says Autonomic principal Michael De Nigris.
"But [the music] all comes from iTunes anyway, so why not use it from iTunes?"
Autonomic's MCS-EX software blends iTunes and WMA music into a single library -- on the fly, with no intervention from the customer.
The software runs on virtually any PC or Windows Home Server. A 5.1 sound card in the PC or server becomes a three-zone music player.
Add a second card and you get six streams flowing from the server in any combination of WMA and iTunes. "There is no other company that can do multiple-output iTunes," says NuVo CTO Rick Kukulies.
Now, plug the outputs from the sound card(s) into the stereo inputs of a NuVo Grand Concerto or Essentia E6G multiroom audio system to distribute the music throughout the house.
The two companies created an incredibly useful music management and whole-house audio solution that lets users access all of their digital content from a single library, and distribute it to any room of the house -- six streams at a time.
No big deal? Consider that the library can include typical WMA [Windows Media Audio] files as well as DRM-protected iTunes music.
The software, called Media Control Server EX (MCS-EX), was created by Autonomic Controls at the behest of NuVo.
"At home, our music was in WMA [Windows Media Audio], but my wife wanted to listen to her iPod," says NuVo president David Rodarte.
"You could get one but not the other." In other words, you have to flip between music folders, rather than select from a single library.
"It shouldn't have to work that way," Rodarte says.
Worse, in the case of NuVo's and other multiroom audio systems, when the iPod disappears from the docking station, there go the iTunes.
"The iPod dock is a great solution if you want to keep the iPod docked" says Autonomic principal Michael De Nigris.
"But [the music] all comes from iTunes anyway, so why not use it from iTunes?"
Autonomic's MCS-EX software blends iTunes and WMA music into a single library -- on the fly, with no intervention from the customer.
3 Music Streams from one 5.1 Sound Card
The software runs on virtually any PC or Windows Home Server. A 5.1 sound card in the PC or server becomes a three-zone music player.
Add a second card and you get six streams flowing from the server in any combination of WMA and iTunes. "There is no other company that can do multiple-output iTunes," says NuVo CTO Rick Kukulies.
Now, plug the outputs from the sound card(s) into the stereo inputs of a NuVo Grand Concerto or Essentia E6G multiroom audio system to distribute the music throughout the house.
Subscribe to the CE Pro Newsletter
About the Author
Julie Jacobson, Editor-at-large, CE Pro
Julie Jacobson is co-founder of EH Publishing and currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro, mostly in the areas of home automation, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. She majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. Julie is a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player with the scars to prove it. Follow her on Twitter @juliejacobson.
7 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
Hi!
I am having trouble with my computer in the volume control contained in edition of the Windows XP SP1, and i wanna solve the problem. Please help me to fix the preoblerm by installuing the new edition of this program automatically opn my computer.
The Charmed Quark Controller (CQC) also has the ability to do multiple-output iTunes. In fact, I believe that CQC had this feature before NuVo.
Mike, thanks for chiming in. The key with the Nuvo/Autonomic solution is that it can do multiple streams of DRM’s iTunes. Can CQC do that?
After doing some research on the subject, it appears that CQC may support multiple streams of DRM iTunes, although it’s not clear.
We feel that the features of our solution make it particularly suitable for the Custom Installed Electronics channel . The metadata display with the NuVo keypads, aggregation of WMA, iTunes, and unprotected media, and the open control protocol enabling further integration with the various industry automation systems offers a unique solution.
Yes, we do support multiple streams of DRM’d iTunes content plus WMA and MP3, and we also can push out metadata to the Nuvo keypads which plenty of our customers do and love, and of course we are a complete automation solution as well.
Dean Roddey
Charmed Quark Systems, Ltd.
Thanks for the clarifications, all!
Page 1 of 1 comment pages
It looks exactly like what I need. Unfortunately, after viruses wiped out my business computer last year, I have completely sworn off Windows systems. (Fortunately, I had a Linux backup server or I would have been in a world of you_know_what.)
Let me know when it is available for a non-legacy operating system.