Installment 004 of The Custom Integrator Show is live, this week looking at Windows Media Center and how to deliver multi-channel audio and how to design for a multi-room installation

Installment 004 is a continuation of where we left off in 003 with looking at some of the characteristics of the Windows Media Center PC itself. This time we start evaluating the criteria for the audio subsystems based upon the implementation requirements. There are a lot of issues to consider when potentially delivering 7.1 channels of audio with support for the lossless codecs of Blu-ray Disc playback while simultaneously outputting 2 channels or even 5.1 channels of audio to a Multi Room Audio (MRA) system. In addition, you may need to support the Windows Media infrastructure in conjunction with an iTunes library or a Zune collection. There are tradeoffs with the different approaches and we start to peel back the layers to come up with a list of requirements and deliverables to consider as you develop your list of hardware solutions and best practices. To further illustrate the point of how complex the implementation can become, you also have to consider how you are going to synchronize the Multi Room Audio components to an associated Multi Room Video (MRV) distribution solution.

 

The Custom Integrator Show Installment 004

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