Search CE Pro




Browse CEDIA News
News · Products · Blogs · Slideshows · Press
image
Booth 3669
image
Booth 4025
image
Booth 4154

image
Booth 3224
image
Booth SR4-5
image
Booth 1343





Print  |  Email  |  Comments (0)  |  Share  |  News  |  Follow on Twitter, Facebook or RSS

NuVo Debuts Browser Interface for Multiroom Audio

Music Port enables multichannel sound cards to deliver multiple streams of audio to multiple zones – controllable via PC, UMPC or NuVo keypads.


image
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.

image

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.

image

Subscribe to CE Pro CEDIA Daily Alerts

Receive the latest news, products and more from CEDIA delivered straight to your inbox.
Email address:

Subscribe to the CE Pro Newsletter

Article Topics

News · Product News · CEDIA · Multiroom Audio · All topics

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.

0 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)

Post a comment
Name:
Email:
Choose smileys | View comment guidelines
Remember my personal information
Notify me of follow-up comments?

Please answer the question below:


Sponsored Links

  About Us Customer Service Privacy Policy Contact Us Advertise With Us Dealer Services Subscribe ©2010 CE Pro
  EH Network: Electronic House Electronic House Ideas Commercial Integrator ChannelPro ProSoundWeb Church Production Worship Facilities Electronic House Expo Worship Facilities Expo