Skip to Content

Summer Budget Travel Tips from Gadling
AOL Tech

multi-room audio posts

Multi-room audio owners are all smiles with their purchase

Sonos multi-room audio system
The growing number of "zone 2" speaker taps on the latest generation of receivers is all the evidence you need that multi-room audio systems are big with consumers. Cynics might argue that 7.1 channels of sound pretty much saturated the living room, but a study from the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) says that people with multi-room audio covering more than two rooms are happy with their setups. A whopping 85-percent of those folks would take the plunge all over again, and with more than half of them using their systems daily, it's easy to understand why. With prices on multi-room audio moving down -- especially with after-market solutions -- we're hoping lots more people jump into this product sector and join that happy 85-percent.

NuVo Technologies beefs up integration with Life|ware

NuVo Technologies and Exceptional Innovation have apparently found it within their hearts to team up in order to provide better integration between wares; after all, there's at least a decent chance that anyone with a remarkable home automation system is using kit from both of these firms. Starting now, NuVo Grand Concerto multi-room audio Control Pads now can also control Life|ware home automation scenes, meaning that Control Pads can now dictate Life|ware-connected lighting, shades, climate, security, etc. What's it take to bring the couple together? A $399 NuVoNet Adapter (NV-NNA) and Life|ware's Visual Project configuration tool, both of which are available now. Full release is after the break.

Sony intros iPod-friendly S-AIRPLAY multi-room audio system


You know how it goes with Sony -- proprietary just seems to rule the roost. Thankfully, the outfit is at least recognizing a trend in the market by trotting out an iPod-friendly version of its S-AIR wireless audio technology. The new S-AIRPLAY system (formally known as AIR-SA20PK) comes with one iPod docking station and a pair of S-AIR wireless speakers, though there is an AM / FM tuner built in should your stored jams get stale. Sony suggests that music can be beamed some 164-feet away from the dock sans cabling, and so long as your S-AIR speaker is plugged into a power outlet (and within the aforementioned range), it'll pick up the signal and start talkin'. Look for the kit to land next month for around $400, while additional S-AIR wireless speakers will set you back $130 apiece. Full release after the break.

NuVo Music Port integrates PCs with multi-room audio systems


If you've already dumped coin on NuVo Technologies' Grand Concerto or Essentia E6G multi-room audio system, you might as well cough up a little more to snag this puppy. The newly announced NuVo Music Port is a hardware / software package that enables "home desktop and laptop PCs to act both as sources and as controllers" in either of the aforesaid systems. Essentially, the device transforms a PC into a multi-output source for a NuVo system and enables any web-connected device on the home network to double as a media controller. The software end of the deal tosses in a swank browser interface that includes cover art and the like, and just so you know, it can be added to existing systems or installed with new ones. Hit the read link for all the gory details.

Sony S-AIR hands-on


We sat down with Sony's new proprietary S-AIR wireless music distribution system and came away, well, what do you think? It's 5GHz, which is nice, but it's not mesh and the whole setup is pretty rudimentary, especially given its bulky interface cards. If you buy nothing but Sony products this might do, but we have a feeling unless they make a huge blitz in the market to get other companies to adopt S-AIR people will probably forget this thing as quickly as it came.





    AOL News

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: