SpeakerCraft Nirv: IP-Based Audio, 1080p Video, Intercom, Data, Control Over One Cat 5

While many of the Nortek companies have scaled back on their booths for CEDIA 2009, SpeakerCraft is "going to CEDIA with the largest product introduction ever," says president Jeremy Burkhardt.

The new product, called Nirv, is expected to be the ultimate in networked audio/video, with whole-house 1080p video, audio, intercom, data and control -- all over a single Cat 5 cable, according to Jason Craze, director of engineering.

"It's a very modular system," he says. "We've moved away from the big beast in the closet." Users simply plug sources into the Cat 5 network for access from any room in the house.

Nirv builds on IP networking but Craze says SpeakerCraft has unique method for "manipulating existing technologies."

He explains that the IP/Ethernet technology "is completely built on quality of service."

On the programming side, SpeakerCraft spurns the typical "zone-based" paradigm. Instead, Nirv is built around individual user experiences.

"Press the 'Julie' button in the living room and it goes to your specific settings," Craze says. "Those settings can follow you around the house and be applied to any room or source instantly."

Even Julie's preferred eq settings would follow her from room to room.

He notes that costlier A/V distribution solutions can accomplish these feats "if you fake it with programming," but the wizard-based Nirv software is built from scratch for this type of user experience.

Dealers can create a system using nothing but a TV GUI, and consumers can tweak it from there. SpeakerCraft is using the FancyPants graphics engine from Fuzzy Spider to drive the Nirv GUI. The company is not using the FancyPants platform to create a "media center" as an earlier press release suggested.

Nirv starts with a hub that serves as the "traffic cop," says Craze. "It provides the routing, knows who's logged in, who's not, and manages priorities.

A "priority" might be something like: If Mom's logged in, she can override any other user. Kids get locked out of the cable box, though, if the adults are using it -- again, something that can be done with other distribution systems but, in the case of Nirv, priority-setting (for individuals and quality of service) is a fundamental part of the wizard programming.

Sources connect to the hub via a modular card-based solution, or client devices that can connect anywhere on the network.

The product is expected to ship in the first quarter of 2010.