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Next Generation Media Server

Fuze Media is launching a new family of media server solutions for the whole house.  NASBA DH is providing several venues to provide NASBA members with a way to see the products in action.  On Thursday August 16 there is a city dinner event at the DoubleTree in Carson, CA (LA Area) and on Wednesday August 29 there is another city dinner event at the Westin San Francisco Airport.

Julie Jacobson recently wrote a review on Fuze Media products on the CEPro blog that you might also find interesting.

Automated Plasma TV Lift

Check out this unique/custom TV lift. You've got to see the video to believe it.  It's one of the most spectacular lift designs that I've seen. 

Of course this would keep you from storing all that old junk under your bed.  And you'd also probably want to vacuum out those dust balls periodically so your screen doesn't pop out covered in goobers.

AMX Acquires Autopatch

AMX just announced their acquistion plans for acquiring Autopatch.  At first glance this seems like a great fit for the two companies.  Autopatch has long been a reputable manufacturer of audio, video, and control switching products.  We've used their products on many projects over the years.

Since many of their products are modular you can create just about any configuration of switcher that you want (i.e. 16 video in by 8 video out OR 2 digital audio in by 10 digital audio out,  etc...)  Their products give tons of flexibility to the system integrator for creating solutions in the field.  Now combined with the solid control and UI products that AMX has been bringing to market this becomes an even stronger option set for System Integrators.  You can learn more about Autopatch and the products that they manufacturer at the AutoPatch section of the AMX website.

Wall Mounted TV's

A friend of mine and "NASBA Event Producer Extraordinaire" Bill Booth came across these pictures yesterday and forwarded them to me.  It appears to be an DIY project by a homeowner looking to save a few bucks.  I have to say that the front picture really looks pretty nice.  But looking at the back picture leaves we wondering how long it will take before either the door or the TV are busted.

I especially love the location of the set-top box. I bet the IR control works great from there.

Internet Video

Some folks are actually questioning why the chasm between the PC and the TV needs to be filled.  Ok, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt,...you're too busy working and making money to notice all the content that is coming online in the past 6 months.  It's truly staggering and if you're not seeing it I can assure you that your clients are...well ok....your clients KIDS are seeing it.  They're seeing LOTS of it.

So here are some random links to video that you might not have known was online.

http://video.google.com/nhl.html - Full length hockey games including recent and historic games(GO BLACKHAWKS)

http://www.shipwreckcentral.com/map/index.php - Amazing content previously only available on National Geographic

http://www.im.com - A video channel aggregator.  They've got a ton of stuff that you can subscribe to.  Once subscribed it will cache the latest episode of each channel subscription that you choose to your PC and the full episode will play without any buffering delays.  I just watched episode 1.05 of MariposaHD the other day....yep that's right all 586Mb of iHD content without any buffer delays, video stutters, or video tearing.....pure HD.  Oh yea, and the content was ok too :-)

http://www.streamalicious.com - "IM-want-to-be" but the application works inside Media Center instead of running as a seperate ap on your desktop.

http://www.ifilm.com - OK... you're right this one is just a YouTube knockoff....or is it?

http://www.nbbc.com - Just in case you thought that online video was only being produced by amatures or cable tv rejects.  NBC is making a huge investment here.

Much of this content is good enough to make the argument that consumers would love to watch it on their TV's rather than being stuck in front of their PC's.  Actually there are SO MANY choices here that with the exception of the 1-2 shows that I like to see each week, I would FAR prefer to be choosing from these online video choices than being forced to watch only what the Cable/Satellite provides choose to push down me.

But until the IT and CE manufactures come together and bring products to market that let me easily access that online content on the TV while sitting on my couch, I'll continue to carry my laptop around the house to serve as my TV replacement.

BitTorrent & CE

BitTorrent, Inc., home to the world's leading peer-assisted digital content delivery platform, recently announced plans to work with several CE manufacturers to embed BitTorrent technology into consumer products.

As video downloading continues to gain momentum it appears that CE manufactures are realizing the added value for improving the user experience of improving download speeds. 

Here's a list of products that BitTorrent listed in their press release:

ASUS WL-700gE Wireless Storage Router

ASUS WL-500gP Router

ASUS WL-500gW Router

Planex BRC-W14VG-BT Router

Planex BRC-14VG-BT Router

Planex BRC-W14V-BT Router

Planex BLW-HPMM-U Router

Planex BLW-HPMM-G Router

QNAP TS101 NAS Server

QNAP TS-201 NAS Server