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.