Smart Home Blog

Base LinuxMCE distribution includes Sqeezebox Control Center aka SlimServer. It allows to build multi-room audio system very easy. But Squeezeboxes are not so cheap as we’d like. So, Dianemo developers (company which offers commercial installations of LinuxMCE and returns back to community a lot of new and fixed functionality) implemented support of several sound cards (including USB ones) on one core or media director. Each card has one Squeezeslave (software implementation of Squeezebox) associated with it. As result using cheap USB sound cards you can build multi-room audio system.

Code to implement SoftAudio feature will be added to the project repository soon. So, hope we’ll have it in some new 0810 update next month.

Russound Collage is a media system which uses powerline to transmit media content. It’ll be a good choice in case of an embedded multiroom music system for retrofit house. The system includes two components – a Collage Media Manager and Amplified Keypad. The Collage Media Manager is connected to the LAN via Ethernet port to get media content from the network shares and online services. Its power cord provides both power to the unit, as well as a connection to Powerline Carrier network.

The Amplified Keypad sports color LCD display and navigation buttons. Additionally it has built-in FM tuner. So, you’ll able to listen you favourite FM stations as well. Thanks to built-in amplifier the keypad can be directly connected with speakers. Also using built-in microphone two or more keypads can be used as intercoms. The navigation looks very similar to iPod. But it isn’t bad.

Installation of Collage is simple and DIY oriented. But the price is higher then ordinary DIY system. The Collage Media Manager is $549.99 and the Amplified Keypad – $849.00. Russound is planning to produce iPod dock and Source Bridge which will allow to connect external media source such CD changer or CCTV video cameras. In that case the Amplified Keypad will be also used for video monitoring.

I told many times that Nokia’s Internet Tablet is the best product produced by famous Finish company. It can help a lot when you need cheap but attractive and power solution. As example, let’s see the Folio Music Server from Pinnacle Audio. The N810 with pre-installed Pinnacle Audio software becomes a control panel for the music server and allows to users control music playback without PCs or TV screens connected to it. Watch the N810 on the video below in action.
Read more »

Roku – a leader in Internet-connected digital media players, has selected Qt for Embedded Linux® to be integrated into a soon-to-be-announced multimedia streaming product:

Roku chose Qt because of its ability to quickly create a rich user interface, providing an important time-to-market advantage. Qt also delivers the ability to support multiple operating systems and devices from a single codebase. As with all versions of Qt, developers are able to focus on building the core value of each product, instead of platform-specific maintenance. Qt also eliminates the need to invest resources in multiple languages, toolkits and environments.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

Nuvo has released its Wireless USB Syncing Device (NV-USBW), which enables homeowners and installers to sync music from PCs throughout the home to NuVo’s NV-M3 server without the need for a hard-wired connection. It provides a USB device connection over Wireless-G that is specially “tuned” for the NV-M3. As result PCs syncing to the NV-M3 music server no longer need to be close to the NV-M3.

The Wireless USB Syncing Device will be available in December for $399.