CEDIA Expo 2009 Rochelle Park,
N.J. – S1Digital unveiled Wednesday its Digital Entertainment Platform (DEP)
offering centralized storage, archiving, and distribution of HD movies, live
and recorded HD television programs, music photos and other digital files.
“The
Digital Entertainment Platform is the most advanced digital entertainment
offering on the market today,” stated Paul Heitlinger, S1Digital president. “Our solution is
unique and we consider it a new category of product. No media server has been
able to integrate this many different types of media, much less stream
high-definition TV and movies.”
The system is based on Microsoft Windows (soon to be Windows 7).
The S1Digital
DEP includes three components: an entertainment server, Media Center
clients and a control solution.
S1Digital said the suggested retail for the Entertainment server
ranges from $3,500 to $15,000 depending on size and configuration. Media Center
client pricing ranges from $2,000 to 10,000. All products are available now
Content is streamed around the house between the server and
clients over Ethernet – Cat 5e/6, the company said.
The server
portion is said to “consume” and catalog content from the built-in combo Blu-ray, DVD and CD
drive, and automatically downloads cover art and metadata.
The system can catalog and playback any video files that a
customer already has on their network (or has copied to the server). “It can
also copy any non-copy protected discs,” the company said.
The server
supports 16TB or 32TB of protected storage in a 3U rack chassis, or 4TB or 8TB
in a 1U chassis.
The Media Centers can act as a DVR, and support cable via
CableCard (no video-on-demand or pay-per-view), unencrypted QAM (i.e. basic
cable) and ATSC (over the air). Content is streamed to clients distributed
throughout the house.
Users can also watch and record up to four channels
simultaneously with directly connected TV tuners.
The system will support streaming and recording live TV to Xbox
360s over the network, and using the Entertainment server and Network TV
add-on, the system can also stream live TV to other Media Centers in the house,
S1Digital said.
Media Center clients play content stored on the
server, and will stream 1080p video and 7.1-channel audio. Live and recorded
HDTV can be streamed directly to the client, without needing TV tuners or a directly
attached cable box, the company said.
The
custom-designed chassis will play back Blu-rays, DVDs or CDs directly from the
built-in optical drive, S1Digital said.
An optional
touchscreen controller manages the Media Centers from any room. It provides
two-way control enabling browsing of content including cover art and metadata
and can integrate with Crestron, AMX, RTI and other touchscreen controllers.
S1Digital said
it will sell the system as a package supporting as many rooms as customers
wish. The components can also be purchased separately so that users can add new
zones or include existing S1Digital Media Center models or control solutions.
“Integrators
will realize the many benefits of selling and installing the Digital
Entertainment Platform,” said Heitlinger. “There is no need for
custom wiring back to the server or for bulky components in each room and the
platform communicates over local network. In fact, there never has been such a
powerful solution that’s so simple to set up and use, yet the platform costs
less than most other single-use media server solutions.”
S1Digital is a Microsoft direct OEM and Gold Partner and offers
digital entertainment solutions to the high end custom installer and direct
channels.
S1Digital will
be demonstrating the Digital Entertainment Platform at CEDIA Expo in Atlanta Sept 10-13 in
booth 5729.
