After moving into the enterprise AV market as discussed here Cisco is also moving into your living room. They already had a nice entry point with their wireless access points, routers and other network devices but now they really show off with some products not designed to hide away
They just announced at CES it's Wireless Home Audio line up and some NAS devices for home use. This is a nice start to compete with Sony, Philips, Samsung, LG, Pioneer, Onkyo etc. The way they do this is a smart one. They do not start with the entry from the consumer electronics site being a direct competitor from sony, philips etc when showing their AV systems but taking a d-tour via the network
The digital living room is slowly becoming reality since we all have our live reduced to some bits and bytes (digital pictures, DIVX movies, MP3 music, IPTV (remember CISCO already has an IPTV platform), DVR etc) but integration and implementation into a living room is still not easy. Microsoft does a nice try with Windows home server and Mediacenter (I have both and really like my them but there is still some room for improvement, also from the content and service delivery parties to work together to give the consumers an great offering). However these initiatives are still not there for everybody and you need to be tech savy to manage this infrastructure.
Maybe CISCO can elevate the digital living room to a new level that can be used by anyone (including older people that did not grow up with computers). So the big questions are:
- Can they provide an easy to implement infrastructure
- Can they handle all media formats nicely (some standardization would be nice but I guess we are not there yet)
- Is it open enough to work with other devices in the home
- Do they have the rigth partners to make it a great offering for the consumers (I still hate it that my digital TV from UPC can not be integrated into my mediacenter (or MCE/VMC alternative) in a nice way)
- Do they provide the right applications so it will be an integrated experience (how will they fit in their line of home monitoring cameras for example)
At least they start of with a nice lineup and they support the most important standards. Hope they are easy to upgrade in terms of functionality and support of standards. The line up is: The WHA is a whole-house, multi-zone audio system using Ethernet and draft 802.11n wireless networking and DLNA 1.5. The lineup includes three players, powered speakers, a wireless touch-screen controller and iPod dock, all scheduled to hit stores this quarter with pricing starting at $300 for the entry-level player.
The DMC350 Conductor Wireless-N Digital Music Center is an all-in-one wireless music system with integrated speakers, seven inch LCD touch screen, integrated CD player and IR Remote. Pricing was not announced and it appears that this will be the last family member to become available.
The DMC250 Director Wireless-N Music Player with Integrated Amplifier ($449.99 MSRP) drops the CD player and speakers and adds a 50 W amplifier.
The DMP100 Player Wireless-N Music Extender ($299.99 MSRP) is the entry-level player. It has stereo line outputs and all the functions of the more expensive player options, but no display, CD player or amplifier.
The DMWR1000 Controller Wireless-N Touchscreen Remote ($349.99 MSRP) features a large color touchscreen and thumbwheel and can be used to control all players and a docked iPod
The other components available include the DSPK50 Stereo Speaker Kit ($149.99 MSRP), MCCI40 iPod Dock ($79.99 MSRP). Additional DMRIR500 IR Remotes (that come with all players) can be purchased for $29.99(MSRP).
For your purchasing convenience, Cisco has kindly assembled three kits:
- Premier ($999.99 MSRP)Two-room starter kit with Director and IR Remote, Player and IR Remote, and Wireless-N Controller.
- Trio ($849.99 MSRP)2 Players, 2 IR Remotes, and a Wireless-N Controller, for adding the WHA to existing audio systems.
- Executive ($549.99 MSRP)Single room kit with Director, IR Remote and speakers.
Along with the WHA, Cisco also kicked loose a new line of NASes that put its previous NAS200 to shame. The Media Hub line consists of three two-bay NASes with a very friendly Flash-driven web interface, UPnP AV / DLNA and iTunes servers, photo slideshow, remote access and NTI Shadow-bundled backup (for Windows only).
The NMH405 (500 GB) and NMH410 (1 TB) models both include a front panel LCD display and 6-in-1 card reader. The NMH305 does not have the LCD or card reader and sells for $50 less than the 405. All versions come with one drive—you add the second to either expand capacity (JBOD) or increase security (RAID 1).
MSRPs are $429.99 for the NMH410, $349.99 for the NMH405 and $299.99 for the NMH305. All will be available shortly.
The tiny SFF PC is only 3.3cm thick and is HD compatible. This may well be the best SFF PC Shuttle has for use as an HTPC machine in the living room. The chassis used for the XS35 is 1-liter class and has a standard VESA mount interface. That interface means you can mount the PC to the rear of a TV or LCD display.
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