Fuze Revamps Multiroom Media Center, Signs OEM Deal with Velocity

Fuze Media is teaming up with PC maker Velocity Micro to build and sell Fuze's special breed of entertainment products based on Windows Media Center.

Fuze takes advantage of Media Center's content management applications, but "hides" the PC-like features so that the product seems more like a dedicated media server, rather than a computer.

Under a licensing program launched in April, Velocity will roll out a PC called the Velocity Micro FuzeBox, with a starting price of about $1,995.

Technology and Business Revamp

Fuze has had a bit of an identity crisis since it unveiled its Fuze Media Server in August 2007. The company originally planned to design, build (through a contract manufacturer) and sell Media Center-based whole-house audio and entertainment systems to the custom installation channel.

Recently, however, the company opted instead to OEM its technology to hardware providers like Velocity.

VP of marketing and sales Bob Silver says that Fuze underestimated the expense of building and marketing media servers on its own. With the OEM approach, he says, "we can keep a leaner staff."

Beyond the shift in business models, Fuze has made several technological changes to its product.

For starters, the company has decided to scrap its clever Cat 5 whole-house audio system that included amplified keypads called FuzeTunes.

"They didn't like it," says Silver, speaking about dealer reaction to FuzeTunes. "They all wanted their big amps."

With Fuze's new direction, integrators can have their own big amps, and still take advantage of Fuze's Media Center innovations.

In addition, Fuze is enhancing its software, dropping its prices, and enabling the use of Media Center Extenders for multiroom applications.

Fuze's new approach is "a combination of a business revamp and a technology revamp," says Silver.

Velocity Partnership

Velocity Micro, a leading system builder with expertise in Media Center, is the first taker under Fuze's new OEM program (not surprisingly since Velocity originally made the boxes for Fuze).

Initially, Velocity will roll out the Velocity Micro FuzeBox, with a starting price of about $1,995. The cost is "dramatically lower" than Fuze's own Fuze Box, says Silver. "We looked at the bare minimum components to make it work acceptably."


Automated DVD importing is now a feature of the Fuze system

Primarily, Velocity's product will have fewer zones than the original (one video and five audio). Other than that, "the software is pretty much the same," Silver says.

Working with Velocity gives Fuze an able manufacturing partner, as well as access to retail markets that Fuze could never tap on its own.

"They're in essence handling all of the hardware, Web sales and retail," says Silver, who declined to name retail outlets where Fuze will be sold. (Velocity products currently are sold at Micro Center, Circuit City and Best Buy.)

FuzeOne: 'Technology Revamp'

Besides the business model, a lot has happened to Fuze technology since we last covered it.

The big CEDIA 2008 announcement is that the company has developed an entirely new platform called FuzeOne.

The product evolved from feedback that "people liked that we had TV, music and movies all in one product," says Silver.

The initial "pushback" from dealers and consumers, he says, revolved around the cost of the FuzeMini PC clients (about $2,500 retail) and the burden of DVD ripping, among other things.

OEMs had complaints of their own, namely Fuze's complicated architecture.

"It must be a much simpler implementation for OEMs," says Silver. "We needed products that fit within the hardware constraints that PC OEMs operate under. We had to rethink the architecture to get this product into an all-in-one box."

Hence the "one" in FuzeOne.

Along with hardware changes, Fuze made several improvements to its software, which has been "significantly enhanced," says Silver.

Among the new features:

• Fuze abandoned Windows Media Player for music playback. "It was slow and cumbersome," Silver says. "Trying to do large playlists, multizone, etc., became a drag on WMP. So we built our own."


• Fuze simplified DVD ripping and library management. Originally, says Silver, "we felt there were adequate solutions for getting DVDs onto the system, so we left it alone for DRM [digital rights management] purposes."
  
  As it turns out, though, "people want a brain-dead way of doing it," Silver learned. So now Fuze has a built-in DVD ripping solution that works in conjunction with AnyDVD software from SlySoft (sold separately).
  
  This approach provides an easy solution for consumers, Silver maintains, while insulating Fuze from copyright-protection issues.
  
  AnyDVD, he says, "resides in the background of the computer and decrypts any type of encrypted DVD that you put in the computer. Our software sees the DVD as an unencrypted DVD and imports it without any type of encryption."
  
  He adds, "We're not unencrypting DVDs; AnyDVD is. We're clean."


• Any PC on the network can serve as a client device to share in the Fuze experience. The feature "allows users to use any PC throughout the home to control the system, in addition to using the system’s standard remote control at any TV," Silver says.
  
  Simply slip the supplied disc into a PC, and it will automatically download the DVD importer, Fuze's media management interface, and shortcuts to content "stores" for photos, movies and music.
  
  Previously, for other PCs to participate in the Fuze experience, they had to reside on a proprietary network with a specified Cisco router. "Now they can reside on the existing network," Silver says.


• The Fuze system will work with Media Center Extenders. This is the big one. Previously, to extend the Fuze experience, you had to use Fuze's own clients, which were mini PCs that retailed for about $2,500.
  
  "We still provide FuzeMinis if you want to use them as clients, but we're moving away from that because we wanted to use Media Center Extenders," Silver says.
  
  The real innovation is that Fuze will enable off-the-shelf Media Center Extenders to mimic exactly the trademark Fuze interface, not the standard Media Center interface.


• FuzeOne takes full advantage of DLNA and UPnP networking standards. Currently, users get these networking capabilities only through a software download. In the new version, "just open up Network Neighborhood, see the Fuze system and click on it," says Silver. "It will self-install everything you need."

Improved Powerline Control

Although Fuze is dropping its amplified keypads, the company is keeping its retrofittable "Easy Control" keypads that communicate with the server over the powerlines.

These clever devices communicate with the Fuze machine via Universal Powerline Bus (UPB) to summons playlists, adjust the volume, and "join" other zones for music sharing.

The Easy Control keypads can replace a light switch, and even serve as a dimmer for the load, all while controlling the music server.

Fuze has made several improvements to the original keypad. Most notably, the company added a voice annunciator to the product, so you can cycle through the options, without having to keep track of where you are in the cycle.

In addition, Fuze now allows users to select from four playlists, instead of only one.

The voice in the keypad asks, "Join existing zone? Play favorites 1? Play favorites 2? …."

Silver says that the keypads have worked "unbelievably reliably."

FuzeOne Offers More Memory, More Zones

Initially, Velocity is implementing Fuze's new software in a stripped down PC to create FuzeBox.

Ultimately, the company (and other providers) will produce high-end FuzeOne machines.

Versus the FuzeBox, FuzeOne supports more video zones – up to six, compared to FuzeBox's three-zone capacity. FuzeOne also supports more audio zones – nine versus FuzeBox's five.

FuzeOne will have mirrored 750 GB hard drives with a variety of RAID 5 options (up to 2.2 TB of usable storage).

Users can add capacity through NAS drives and USB hard drives (a new feature).

Eventually, Velocity will offer FuzeOne machines, but the PC maker won't have exclusive use of the Fuze brand. Silver expects other manufacturers to create their own implementations of the Fuze platform (much as vendors market different versions of Media Center Extender).

Ultimately, Velocity will take over fulfillment for Fuze "and to some extent sales within the [custom] channel," says Silver. "Support will come through them. We will train them on level one software support, but we'll be very involved."

Velocity will be sharing a booth with Fuze (#1070) at CEDIA Expo 2008.

Click here for CEDIA Expo showfloor maps.