08.04.2008 — In March I declared NuVo the "winner" of the Electronic House Expo for Music Port, an adapter that enables two-way communications between NuVo's multiroom audio system and a PC or Windows Home Server.

With Music Port, NuVo was the first to implement a new technology from Autonomic that enables PCs and Home Servers to deliver multiple streams of audio (including DRM-protected iTunes) through a multichannel sound card – six streams through a 5.1 card and eight streams through a 7.1 card. (correction: three stereo streams through a 5.1 card and four through a 7.1 card)

The remarkable thing about the solution is that it can be implemented through NuVo's very affordable multiroom audio systems and keypads.

NuVo now is putting the final touches on Music Port and promises to ship the solution before the CEDIA Expo.

What NuVo has added to the product since March is a PC interface.



It builds on the Mirage software from Autonomic, which was developed ostensibly to enable an Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) to operate a home's Media Center ecosystem including PCs, Windows Home Servers and Media Center Extenders.

NuVo put its own wrapper on the software and tied it more integrally to the company's Grand Concerto and Essentia E6G multiroom audio systems. "It pulls out all of the zones as configured [through NuVo]," says Pete Maley, NuVo senior product design engineer.

NuVo demonstrated the software recently on a PC as well as a Samsung Q1 UMPC. The new interface is clean and clever. Click on a song to add it to the queue; press and hold to play it right away. Do this for any zone in the house.

Meanwhile, watch the NuVo touchpads and you'll see that they're always in synch with the PC interface, adjusting the metadata and other characteristics such as volume.

Maley says that NuVo "can build on top of this" to create interfaces for other devices that might run a NuVo system.

Will we see an iPhone interface at CEDIA? Probably not then, but most likely in the not-too-distant future.

Music Port, including the hardware and software, will "retail" for about $1,000.

Need something right away? Casatools offers a browser-based interface for NuVo multiroom audio systems.

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