05.21.2007 — Exceptional Innovation, the company that undoubtedly has done more to promote Media Center in the CE pro channel than any other company, is getting into the hardware business. The company will begin selling five models of its own Windows Vista Media Center PCs, called Lifemedia, this summer. No surprise. I called it a few weeks ago.

In the past, EI’s claim to fame was its Lifeware home-control software for Media Center PCs. The company has maintained all along—at least since 2004 when it burst onto the home-systems scene—that it was a software company. A Media Center was a Media Center, after all, and that was the beauty of Lifeware software: It could run on anyone’s Media Center PC.

It can and it does. But it runs a lot better on Media Center machines that are meant to be used as Media Centers. Those are the PCs that are quiet, stripped of superfluous junkware software, preconfigured with all the right defaults (background noises off, hibernation disabled, etc.) and otherwise optimized for entertainment applications.

To encourage the development of such PCs, EI began an initiative last year to certify Media Centers as “Lifeware-Ready” if they met certain core criteria, some of which are noted above.

So far, Media Centers from HP (Get a DEC before the discontinued product disappears), Ace Computers, Inteset, Niveus and Russound (the forthcoming Media Console) have all received the Lifeware-Ready distinction.

Still, development of these entertainment-optimized PCs has been slow, and they’re still missing something vital to the Lifeware cause: an environment ripe for home control. Lifemedia PCs will be ideal for both entertainment and automation applications.

“We finally decided to roll out something that’s core to our world,” says EI vice president of marketing Mike Seamons. “Over the last three years, the No. 1 question we get asked by dealers is: What Media Center should we use? They want to know what works best with Lifeware.”

Lifeware, like any other application built for Media Center PCs, is only as good as the Media Center it runs on. The experience can be pretty dismal if the virus-protection software keeps popping up, or if the video card stinks, or if the CPU simply can’t perform. And that’s what happens with a large chunk of Media Center PCs (see ”Media Center’s Identity Crisis”. So Lifeware and other applications suffer.

“A big challenge in rolling out Lifeware has been the lack of accountability of Media Centers,” Seamons says. “Lifeware is dependent on a premium Media Center experience. … The key reason we created Lifemedia is to make Media Center the way it should be, to prove to the market that a well-honed Media Center can be a perfect solution for entertainment and automation.”

Why Lifemedia?

EI plans five versions of Lifemedia, starting at $4,500 for the LMS-300 box (three rack units) and topping out at the premium LMS-700 four-rack-unit machine. The LMS-350 -450, -550, -650 and -750 Media Centers come with CableCard slots.

Yes, Microsoft has given OEM status to EI, along with authorization to produce CableCard-enabled Media Centers.

That alone distinguishes EI from other Media Center makers, very few of which have received CableCard authorization.

“We saw how much trouble the industry was going to have making CableCard-ready products,” Seamons says. “Even companies like Exceptional Innovation, that have enormous bandwidth, we struggled to get authorized for CableCard.”

I won’t belabor the general performance specs of the Lifemedia servers—chipsets, processors, hard drive, etc.—which are pretty standard on high-end PCs. You can see the specs at the end of this article.

What really makes Lifemedia different?

Automation Accommodation - To start off, Lifemedia is the only Media Center I know of that accommodates home automation out of the box. Most notably, it has multiple serial ports for communicating with third-party subsystems, 12-volt triggers for activating motorized shades or low-voltage devices, and discrete IR ports on the back panel.

Of course, it comes preloaded with Lifeware software.

“Lifeware is about Media Center being the platform for the whole connected home, so we needed a Media Center that was optimized for the whole house,” Seamons says.

And of course you’re not going to see AOL and other silly software bogging down your new PC. And Norton Antivirus is not going to pop up during “24” begging you to “Renew today!”

The system comes loaded only with the elements required for a great entertainment and automation system. “The software build in Lifemedia servers is totally optimized for a faster out-of-the box experience,” Seamons says.

Easily Upgradeable ‘MediaPlate’ - EI took care to make the back panel of the Lifemedia servers look like traditional A/V components, but with the flexibility of standard PC components.

Most Media Centers that are optimized for entertainment may have the right A/V connections, but there’s a hitch: You can’t swap out cards with off-the-shelf PC components; thus, you’re basically stuck with what the manufacturer gives you, or you’re forced to buy their own proprietary parts.

On the other hand, traditional, flexible PCs don’t have back panels that look anything like home theater components.

EI’s patent-pending MediaPlate is an “interchangable back-panel connection design that lets you put in a combination of video, tuner, and other cards and still maintain the AV style,” Seamons says.

“With many Media Centers, you can’t just go buy and install an upgraded video card. It must be offered custom by the manufacturer. But with Lifemedia servers you can buy upgraded cards and simply order the corresponding MediaPlate.”

Resources, Commitment - No one knows Media Center like EI does. As Seamons says in the official Lifemedia press release: “No one has lived with and done more testing of Media Centers over the past four years than we have, and we have addressed the shortcomings of previous systems along with every other lesson we have learned into the design of these servers.”

Exceptional Innovation appears to have unlimited resources for supporting Lifeware and the Media Center platform. In fact, if it weren’t for EI, I’m pretty sure that CE pros would barely be talking about Media Center.

And, it’s possible, Microsoft would hardly care about the home systems channel.

EI will continue to stay ahead of the curve, in terms of product development, dealer enlightenment, consumer outreach, and back-end services for technical support and remote diagnostics.

EI is committed to Media Center and to the CE pro channel, not just philosophically, but with cold hard cash, and lots of it. No other company can say that.

What it doesn’t have: Probably not ISF certification in the first round. “We are using ISF-certified components, but we haven’t sent Lifemedia to the ISF labs … yet,” Seamons says.

Also, don’t look for the LMS to solve all your multiroom-audio woes just yet. “We don’t have multiple zones of audio,” Seamons says. We’ll solve it a different way, but not in this release.”

What Will Happen to the Media Center Landscape?

No doubt, EI’s entrée into the Media Center hardware business will shake things up, probably just as much as HP’s departure will.

“I hope this product will fill the void left by HP and increase the awareness and market share for Media Centers within the custom community,” says Seale Moorer, CEO of EI.

It’s bound to disappoint other integrator-friendly Media Center vendors such as Ace Computers, Integra, Inteset, Niveus, S1Digital, and Vidabox, to name a few (and in the future Monster and Russound). But market penetration is so low for these products today, that the entire category needs all the help it can get.

Just as EI’s investment in Lifeware has, without a doubt, helped developers of other Media Center-based automation software, the same will be true of its investment in the hardware.

No, I’m not getting that from the EI spin-meisters.

If I were Niveus or Inteset, I would be thrilled that someone with gobs of resources is bringing increased visibility to high-performance Media Centers and the CE pro channel.

“The market for these products will be huge once we have more successful products in the marketplace,” Moorer says.

If EI is coming out with its own boxes, will the Lifeware-Ready program disappear? Quite the contrary. “We’re elevating our Lifeware-Ready program to a totally new level,” Seamons says, adding that there will be several tiers of “readiness.” “We don’t want other manufacturers to stop making Media Centers. In fact, we want more Media Centers and better Media Centers from manufacturers that cater to the integrator channel.”

Who Starts a Product Line at 300? ... and Other Musings

Curiously, EI’s “low-end” line of Lifemedia servers starts at the $4,500 LMS-300. Who does that? Where’s the LMS-100?

No comment on that from Seamons, who only says, “We’re not looking to replace the $2,000 Media Center. ... We’re working on a dealer-centric, margin-centric solution.”

So perhaps we’ll see a LMS-100 or LMS-200 for other channels, maybe retail?

Speaking of retail, will the LMS (100 or 200?) be the preferred Media Center for Best Buy’s ConnectedLife.Home initiative? How about the security/Media Center package from Digital Security Controls (DSC)? Both Best Buy and DSC currently are bundling systems comprising HP’s DEC Media Centers (did I mention they’re dropping that line?) with Lifeware automation software.

I had speculated in the past that Sony or Alienware might replace HP in these two initiatives.

Or, perhaps EI will cede the entry-level Media Center business to other players, particularly its friends in the industry. Both Niveus and Inteset, two friends of the CE pro channel, have intimated they would roll out entry-level products later this year, coming down from their high-end pedestals.

Stay tuned … Subscribe to CE Pro email alerts.

The Specs

Seamons says that the main differences among the various LMS models are processor speed, memory, storage capacity, and video power. There are 2 chassis, a 3U for the 300, 400, 500 and a 4U for the 600 and 700.

Here’s what the press release says: “Life|media Servers include an Intel motherboard with 965 chipset and Intel 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo Processor, 2GB DDRAM, DVD-RW drive, a built-in 28-in-1 Flash Reader. Performance specifications increase for each model, culminating with the flagship Life|media Ultra, which features the Intel D975XBX2 chip set, Intel 2.4 GHz Quad Core Processor, 4 GB DDRAM and 4.5 TB hard drive in RAID 5 Array,

HD-DVD and Blu-ray players, by the way, are coming.

EI is still hammering out the final specs, but here’s what a preliminary spec sheet says about LMS-500:

Hardware Specifications
Operating System – Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
Processor – Intel 2.67 GHz Core 2 Duo
Memory – 4 GB DDR RAM
Storage – 3 TB RAID 0 or 2.25 TB RAID 5
Graphics – Nvidia 8800GTS
DVD – Custom Tray Load DVD-RW (BluRay and HDDVD Forthcoming)
Tuners – (2) Dual NTSC & (2) Dual ATSC Tuner cards (Digital CableCARD Upgradable)
Media Reader – 28-in-1 Flash Media Reader
Power Supply – 650W ATX S-Series

Connections
USB (2) – 2 Front-mounted USB 2.0/1.1
Front A/V – Composite Video + Audio, S-Video
Rear A/V Out – 7.1 Channel (Stereo 1/8” Jacks), Optical S/PDIF
Keyboard – RF Keyboard and Remote Control
Firewire – 1 Front-mounted Firewire Jack
Video – Dual DVI-I (w/ DVI-HDMI Cable), S-Video, Component Video, Composite Video
Serial – (2) RS-232 Ports (9-Pin)
Trigger – (2) 12V Triggers (for shades, screens, relays, etc.)
IR Ports – 1 input, 2 outputs