Pulse Eight, exhibiting for the first time at CEDIA 2016, makes HDMI CEC work. With its Neo switcher, you can have multiple A/V sources and displays all controllable from a TV remote, without the need for IR dongles or other hardware. Everything is controlled through HDMI via the Consumer Electronics Control protocol.
This we discovered at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) earlier this year. Now Pulse Eight is adding an important feature to its platform: power cycling for device reboots.
“There was one thing that was starting to bug me,” says managing director Martin Ellis. “What happens if a source device crashes?”
Say the Fire TV crashes, he says. You don’t want to have to dig into the entertainment console to physically disconnect the power from the device, he explains.
So Pulse Eight soon will be able to auto-reboot problematic devices, even without customer intervention, using a new IP controllable power strip – an Aten PDU (power distribution unit) with Pulse Eight firmware.
“In the background,” Ellis says, the Pulse Eight matrix “is always seeing the content coming in,” so it can monitor for hiccups and reboot automatically through the PDU.
In addition, the unit can notify the installer of any problems with connected devices and/or video streams.
First demonstrated at Essential Install Live in England in July, the new product expected to ship by CEDIA Expo in September or shortly thereafter.
Martin says he expects to work with other IP-enabled PDUs as well.
Pulse Eight is now distributed in the continental U.S. and South America by Structured Cable Products (SCP).
SCP will be showing the new products at CEDIA 2016, booth #2915.
More: The Miracle of HDMI CEC 2.0 Brought to Life by Pulse Eight at ISE 2016
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