Items Tagged With av distribution

Square Connect, a member of the Z-Wave have broken the mouild with their new 'wooden puck' device for infrared controlled home entertainment. A new version of the Blaster, the “Blaster Pro” integrates Z-Wave, allowing expansion of the control sphere beyond the home theatre to include lighting, window shades and other appliances. The SQ Blaster range of products utilise the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch as control interfaces, with applications for other smart phones and tablet devices under development...

Sponsored Post The Times have recently reviewed a new IP TV streamer - The Veebeam - which has just been made available in the UK.  Simply plug in the USB dongle to your computer to beam its content to your telly.  It works with Windows 7, Vista, XP plus Mac OSX and It's designed to send anything on your computer to your TV wirelessly, including things like the BBC iPlayer and YouTube. 

2011 is really shaping up to be the year that IPTV hits the mainstream.  More and more families want to stream 4OD, the ITV Player and many other services to their biggest screen in the house, rather than watching on their smallest.  The US is already seeing a significant proportion of the population cancel their Satellite and Cable service and instead opt to just pay for the series they are really interested in via iTunes for example...

Automated Home's favourite Media Centre, Plex has today announced a version for user of the Android operating system.  The $4.99 app is available now and brings many of the features from the iOS version to a host of new phones and tablets.  Read on for all the details...

Back in September last year Automated Home reader, Klaus sent us a video on XBMC control from his iPhone.  Today he sends us his next video showing home automation control using his iPad.  The system employs 'm..myhome' (Mac and Linux friendly) and controls a huge variety of functions around his house including lighting, blinds, heatinfg, CCTV and door locks - in addition to the media centre control.

Consumer Electronic Control (CEC) is bidirectional serial bus that allows components to control each other across an HDMI cable.  You've probably already heard of this system without knowing it as each manufacture gives it its own name, for example 'Bravia Sync' from Sony, 'Kuro Link' from Pioneer and 'SimpLink' from LG.  With the new kwikwai unit you can control your AV system from Ethernet with CEC replacing stick on IR emmiters for example.  The unit also bridges CEC to USB and RS232 Serial.  You could, for example, send a text string to the OSD of your TV, perhaps to show the name of a caller phoning you or that there's movement outside...