San Diego – Stepping up its competition with Sling Media, Sony announced the third generation of its “LocationFree TV” (LFTV) line, introducing a basic base station unit priced to match the $199.99 suggested retail of the SlingBox.
The basic base station, model LF-B10, was also joined by a step up unit model LF-B20 ($249.99 suggested retail), that has built-in wireless LAN features enabling a direct connection to a home wireless network.
Both units are due to ship to dealers in October.
Both base stations are small black boxes that can be positioned horizontally or vertically. Like earlier LFTV products, they are designed to hookup to A/V components in the home including TVs, DVRs, and video cameras, to allow viewing content they receive or playback through a remote broadband PC connection. This enables viewing TV programs in your living room from anywhere you travel in the world on a Windows or Mac-based notebook PC or Sony’s PlayStation Portable handheld game player.
Sony is also planning to add LFTV access via mobile phones later this year, and also announced the addition of a LocationFree TV Box receiver, which enables content to be streamed from an LFTV base station via a broadband connection to another television instead of a computer. The LFTV Box carries a suggested retail price of $229.99.
