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Sonos Adds Wireless Networking Of Protected Music Downloads

Las Vegas —Sonos’ DIY wireless multiroom audio system now lets consumers stream protected WMA downloads around the house from their PC, thanks to a software update.

The PC must use Windows Media Player 11 running on Windows XP or Vista PCs.

Sonos claims to be the first wireless multiroom-audio system to stream protected music downloads, although single-zone digital media adapters (DMPs) from at least one company, Roku, offers streaming of protected music files.

Sonos’ system, launched in 2005, consists of a handheld wireless-RF LCD remote that displays the PC’s song library and directs music to wireless clients called Zone Players. The clients, which plug into a home’s existing audio systems or to passive speakers, incorporate audio decoders and proprietary wireless mesh-network transmitter and receiver. One type of ZonePlayer incorporates 2×50-watt amp to drive passive speakers. A second type lacks amplifiers and connects to a home’s legacy stereo systems, including table radios.

Up to 32 clients can be used in a home to create a wireless 32-zone multiroom audio system, but one must always be connected directly or via a wired Ethernet connection to a PC.

With the software update, the clients will now stream protected music downloaded from multiple sites, including the Zune Marketplace, AOL Music Now, URGE, Napster, Wal-Mart and Yahoo! Music Unlimited. The capability is on display at the Sonos booth and Microsoft’s Partner pavilion.

The amplified Zone Player is $499, and the un-amplified model is an everyday $349. The RF remote is $399.

The software update, called Sonos System Software 2.1, follows a September update enabling a Sonos system to access Real Networks’s Rhapsody interactive-streaming subscription service without connecting through a PC that’s on and running. Previously, the only way to use Sonos to browse Rhapsody’s music selection was to open the Rhapsody client on a Windows PC running a universal plug-and-play application.

Sonos systems also let users access passive Internet streaming sites without a PC running.

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