Monster At CEDIA Continues Push Into Wireless Music

At CEDIA, Monster also launched a wireless multi-room kit, StreamCast HD, which uses an RF-based technology in the 2.4 GHz to 5.8 GHz frequency bands to stream uncompressed audio at distances of up to 100 feet, Witten said. A StreamCast HD receiver plugs into a Monster ClarityHD speaker and accepts wireless signals from a USB transmitter plugged into a PC. StreamCast HD is a proprietary technology built on the KleerNet platform that can work with HP’s and others’ KleerNet devices via a bridge, Witten said. The StreamCast kit will ship next month, Witten said.

Monster’s ClarityHD speakers have ports on the back for both a Bluetooth module and a StreamCast HD receiver, Witten said. Bluetooth has improved dramatically due to Apple streaming with the AAC codec, he said, which offers “much higher resolution, better dynamic range and a lower noise floor” than what Bluetooth solutions have offered in the past. Monster has stuffed both an AAC decoder and an Adapt-X decoder into its Bluetooth module, with the latter being adopted widely within the Android community and in Apple PowerBooks, he said. The sound quality improvement from both codecs over standard Bluetooth audio is “startling,” Witten said. He added that Bluetooth audio has come so far, “I don’t even bother to demo with a wire or a dock -- it’s that good.”

Monster has been waiting for wireless sound quality to achieve an acceptable level, designing products to incorporate wireless modules when the quality was there, Witten said. “We architected for wireless when we first did the original Beatbox more than 2 years ago,” he said of the company’s original iPod dock. “But we could never get the Bluetooth performance up to the level we felt was good enough.” Standard Bluetooth “degraded the sound so much we felt it was a disservice to the customer” he said. Now the company’s Bluetooth modules retrofit into the $749.95-per-pair ClarityHD speakers and the Beatbox, he said. Monster’s $89 Bluetooth module, called StreamCast, has been shipping for 2 months offering “very high resolution wireless Bluetooth,” he said. With the module, designed for single-room use, consumers can stream content from an iPad or iPhone to a Monster ClarityHD speaker or ClarityHD Micro speaker from 30 feet away.

The StreamCast HD transmitter and receiver kit ($189) launching at the Expo is a multi-room solution that sends consumers’ digital content and Internet radio streams wirelessly throughout the home. With StreamCast HD, four different streams of music can be sent to 12 rooms simultaneously, Witten said. The self-contained RF-based system doesn’t require Wi-Fi or an Ethernet connection to work, he said, although iPad and iPhone apps require Wi-Fi to control the system. Monster Media Player software on a PC is used to set up and control the system, with software activated through a serial number on the transmitter, Witten said. Streams can be Internet radio or users’ music libraries, he said. Buttons on the modules that connect to the speakers allow users to toggle between streams at the speaker end and to power speakers on and off without having to go to the PC or go into an app, Witten said. Any latency between zones is in “micro-seconds,” he said, so users can play the same stream in all zones without echoes or cancellations that can occur in multi-room systems when streams fall out of sync. The $189 starter kit includes a USB transmitter and receiver module, and add-on receivers are $100, he said.

Although previous versions of Monster’s ClarityHD speakers incorporated iPod docks on the top, the company is eliminating iPod docks from the speakers going forward, Witten said. Monster took the hint from Apple officials who asked why Monster was still including docks on its products, Witten said. “They can’t tell you what they're doing, but they'll say something like, ‘why are you still putting docks on?'” Witten said. “It wasn’t necessarily because the connector for future products will change,” as is the rumor with the next iPhone, he said, “but they believe it’s a wireless world, as do we.” In the new generation of ClarityHD speakers, Monster has added white and black gloss finishes to join the existing palette of red, yellow, bronze and silver, he said.

An additional module the company didn’t show, but is preparing for launch, combines a Bluetooth receiver, StreamCast HD transmitter and receiver, three analog inputs and an analog and digital output that allows people to use a tablet or smartphone as a “fifth stream,” Witten said. When an iPad, for instance, gets within Bluetooth range of the module, it connects to the wireless system and becomes the fifth source for any of the dozen zones in a StreamCast HD system, he said. Analog inputs allow users to add legacy sources such as a TV audio or tuner that can be transmitted to all the zones, he said, and the digital output allows users to add a receiver which could become a receiver for music streams. The device, tentatively called StreamCast Bridge, will ship in November at $199, Witten said.

Although Monster’s StreamCast HD multi-source, multi-zone audio system “isn’t directed at Sonos,” Witten said, “people will inevitably draw comparisons.” Monster isn’t making a dedicated device with Wi-Fi and connectivity in the way Sonos does, he said. “We're building audio products with the capability of being brought into a multi-room or multi-source system by adding wireless technology,” he said. “If a customer isn’t interested in wireless, they don’t have to add it,” he said, and the Monster system isn’t dependent on a Wi-Fi network.

Monster also showed upcoming Monster Power Control products with three power outlet controllers. The controllers work with a Monster gateway that plugs into a router and can be controlled by a cloud-based app. The power outlet modules communicate with the gateway and allow consumers to control lights or appliances from their smartphone inside or outside of the home, said Chad Ghanem, product area manager. Prices range from $99.95 for a single-outlet kit, including the gateway, to $149.95 for a three-outlet module kit. Standalone modules are $69.95 and $99.95. Users can schedule control of connected devices through the free app, Ghanem said, and they add power outlet modules to the interface by scanning the QR code with a smartphone, he said.

Monster is still beta testing the range, Ghanem said, adding that the company hopes to provide coverage for a three-story house. Using the app software, users can monitor their energy usage, he said, to see how much power a connected outlet has used in a day or week according to kilowatt hours. It also allows consumers to schedule control of connected devices including TVs, set-top boxes and appliances that are a “vampire power” drain, he said. Monster is looking at changing the name of the product line from Monster Power Control based on a trademark name that could come available soon, but Ghanem wouldn’t elaborate. The power control products will ship in Q1 next year, he said. -- Rebecca Day

CEDIA Expo Notebook

Kaleidescape has joined UltraViolet’s Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, Linus Wong, director of product marketing told us. Joining the UltraViolet camp gives Kaleidescape a chance to work with movie studios, Wong said, following years of legal skirmishes with them over digital copyright issues surrounding the company’s DVD servers. “We've had differences of opinion with the studios and the DVD-CCA (DVD Copy Control Association) in particular,” Wong said, “but this gives us an opportunity to work with the studios on an initiative we think is pretty important.” UltraViolet’s promise to deliver access to movies “anywhere, anytime you want” is appealing to Kaleidescape whose movie servers are limited to watching movies at home, Wong said. Until now, Kaleidescape has been focused on the high end, but “our customers are just like everyone else” and want to watch movies on a laptop or a tablet, he said. UltraViolet allows the best of both worlds, he said. As the optical disc market begins to decline, Kaleidescape’s vision of the future is “a world where you have access to the movies you want but you don’t need the disc,” Wong said. “You'll download them directly from Kaleidescape and that’s our direction,” he said, adding that the company envisions a tiered quality structure. At the high end will be “collection grade” videos that add director commentary and other ancillary information not available with standard video downloads. Kaleidescape gave a peek of its future direction at CEDIA Expo where it launched an iPad app offering ratings and reviews from Rotten Tomatoes. For consumers who buy movies and TV shows, “Extra content is a big part of what they're buying,” Wong said. Meanwhile, Kaleidescape has begun the appeal process in its 5-year legal battle with the DVD-CCA over the CSS content management system in DVDs, and is continuing to ship DVD servers with its current features while the appeal is pending, Wong said. On July 20 a California appeals court granted Kaleidescape’s petition for a writ of supersedeas, staying the injunction issued by the Superior Court in March. As a result, Kaleidescape will continue manufacturing and selling Kaleidescape systems with their current features while the appeal is pending, he said. The appeal process may take a year or more, he said. -- RD

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Crestron unveiled home control technology based on near field communications (NFC) that it said will allow homeowners to trigger macros for personal lifestyle settings using a smartphone. With airConnect, Crestron customers can place a smartphone near an NFC tag on a light switch or other interface in the home to send a programmed command to perform functions such as turning on lights, unlocking a door or turning on AV devices, depending on user preferences. Placing a smartphone close to the tag issues a command without the need to touch devices or go through multiple steps to set up a connection, Daniel Jackson, a research and development executive at Crestron, told us. An NFC tag recognizes personalized settings for different members of the home and issues commands personalized to their preferences, he said. Typical settings could also include music presets, lighting levels, room temperature and shade positions. Two levels of customization are possible, Jackson said. Advanced programmers will create sophisticated macros “that can do anything,” he said, based on a user ID pegged to an email address and location. A smartphone app allows homeowners to program their own settings by recording sequences of events, he said. Jackson expressed disappointment that Apple is rumored not to have included NFC in the iPhone 5, but said Crestron is working on alternative options for iOS control within airConnect. He wouldn’t elaborate. Some Android devices employ NFC, he noted. Crestron’s first attempt to issue an NFC command at Friday’s news conference failed, which staffers attributed to Wi-Fi traffic on the show floor. NFC isn’t affected by Wi-Fi, Jackson noted, but smartphones need to operate over Wi-Fi to work with NFC. The second attempt to issue an NFC command was successful. -- RD

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Furman, known for power management solutions for custom integrators, bowed a line of energy management outlets that will sell through AV specialty stores beginning in November, John Benz, director of power and accessories for Nortek’s Core Brands group, which includes Furman, told us. The Zigbee-based wireless smart plugs works with a Furman BlueBolt gateway that allows consumers to control lights or appliances over the Internet from a phone or Web browser. Benz said Furman chose Zigbee over Z-Wave “because that’s what the smart meters are using.” Utilities have been slow to embrace interactive smart meter technology, and Furman doesn’t know if it will be able to connect to smart meters in the future, Benz said, “but we wanted to keep that option open.” Furman’s hope is to show consumers their whole-house energy usage based on device, he said. Although some utilities show consumers through a Web interface how much energy they're using at a given time, “it’s not telling me how it’s being used,” he said. There’s been a lot of buzz about energy management, Benz said, “but there aren’t a lot of solutions, and there aren’t a lot of people who want to pay for it.” Furman’s $99 Smart plugs communicate with a $99 gateway that works with up to 30 smart plugs and plugs into a router, he said. The smart plugs are fairly bulky having to accommodate a radio and an antenna, we noted. Benz said an in-wall version is in the works. -- RD

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Pioneer has “confidence” that the joint agreement with Sharp for Elite brand TVs will continue despite the departure of Tom Evans, who headed the effort for Sharp, Russ Johnston, vice president of home entertainment at Pioneer, told us. Johnston said he speaks with Sharp executives Jim Sanduski and John Herrington frequently, and there’s been little change to the 750 dealers carrying the PRO-60X5FD 60-inch ($5,999) and 70-inch PRO-70X5FD ($8,499) Elite LCD TVs (CED Aug 5/11 p1). “I have confidence Sharp will have product strategies being refreshed and that they have a commitment” to continuing with the Elite brand, said Johnston, noting that Pioneer has a “long-term” agreement with Sharp. Sharp officials weren’t available for comment. While the Elite TV line wasn’t refreshed this year, Pioneer didn’t always update its Elite plasma set annually, Johnston said. Meanwhile, Pioneer has an exclusive through CES in January on the HTC Connect technology built into 15 Pioneer and Elite products containing it, including AV receivers, Blu-ray players and wireless music systems, Johnston said. The HTC Connect technology allows users to stream audio content from their HTC smartphones, while also making calls, browsing the Internet, texting or playing games. AT&T and T-Mobile have completed updates to the HTC One X and HTC One S to add HTC Connect. Verizon and Sprint will bring it to the HTC One Droid Incredible and HTC One Evo in the coming weeks, Johnston said, Johnston said. Pioneer has been shipping HTC Connect-compatible products for two months, he said. “We will continue to expand our Apple connectivity and HTC connectivity with all new products we introduce,” Johnston said. Among the products containing HTC Connect are Pioneer’s XW-SMA1 ($299) and XW-SMA3 ($399) speaker systems. Pioneer also is in the early days of developing products based on the Wireless Speaker and Audio Association (WiSA) technology, Johnston said. A group within Pioneer is dedicated to WiSA, but “they are still defining the objectives and their goals and are starting to understand how to participate,” Johnston said. -- MS

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Sim2’s CinemaQuattro 4K 3D front projector will be available in late October starting at $158,000, including installation, to a limited number of dealers, said Alberto Fabiano, executive vice president of Sim2 USA. The projector contains three, 1.38-inch Texas Instruments DLP chips with 4096x2160 resolution and starts with 9,000 lumens from a 2-kilowatt Xenon lamp. Higher-power lamps will be available to boost brightness to 25,000 lumens, Fabiano said. The projector with a 2-kilowatt lamp will draw 3,000 watts and require a separate 220-volt single-phase circuit, he said. All 2K and 1080p signals will be upscaled to 4K via an external processor, Sim2 said. The 251-pound projector has two HDMI 1.3 connectors and comes with a 0.72:1-1.0:1 fixed lens. Other lens options range from 1.13:1-1.31:1 to 5.0-7.69:1. Sim2 sourced the projector from Christie Digital, which is one of three suppliers with access to TI’s 4K chips, the others being Barco and NEC, Fabiano said. As it readies the CinemaQuattro, Sim2 scrapped plans for the Nero 235, which was to feature a built-in 2.35:1 aspect ratio and ship in the first half. The Nero 235 contained a 0.9-inch DLP chip with 2560x1600 resolution and featured 2,000 lumens and 10,000:1 contrast. The Nero 235 was dropped out of cost considerations, although Fabiano said: “I don’t know if I share that conclusion because I think it would have sold well.”