News

DMi Launches Escient Vision Whole-Home Media Entertainment Solution (3/7/2008)

CEDIA UK Expo 2008

DMi D&M Installation is launching Escient Vision(tm) for the first time in the UK at CEDIA Expo. Vision is a completely new HD video and music multi-room entertainment system, providing video and music on demand throughout the home from networked hard disk storage. The system features unrivalled ease of use, with playback, programming and control from a high definition user interface, and a competitive price point never seen before for a system of this type.

Escient is a world leader in powerful and discrete digital entertainment solutions that enhance any living environment. Vision is the modern elegant solution to separate music and video systems in different rooms. Gone are the stacks of hi-fi and video equipment scattered throughout the home and racks of CDs and DVDs to be searched and loaded into players; replaced by fast efficient mass media storage and digital network management and playback. Movies and music are searchable by title, artist or genre - on-screen, online, or from touch panels or remote handsets - and playable in any room without ever touching a disc.

Ultra secure RAID drive storage and easily connected client AV players provide for scalability, with systems expandable from standalone network media players to networked systems providing central storage, management and playout of up to 2400 movies*, in 10 different rooms; with the ability to simultaneously view the same movie in two different locations. Client players all feature DVD/CD combi drives for the easy - and legal - ingestion of content to the hard drive storage (as well as allowing the playback of DVDs and CDs in the normal way). Vision supports high definition video - upscaling standard definition (DVD) video to full HD (1080p) for greatly improved picture quality - and high resolution, multi-channel audio. Vision also allows the integration of networked Mac and Windows PCs, iPod docks and even and Blu-ray disc changers, enabling digital music files and streaming music and video from these to be managed from within the system.

Vision is the culmination of more than 10 years experience in the design and manufacture of advanced solutions for managing and accessing digital media in the home. The series comprises three component products, the VS-100 and VS-200 integrated server / players, the VC-1 networked zone player, and the large-capacity VX-600 media server. Features include HDMI 1.3 connectivity (VS-100 / 200 and VC-1), Gigabit Ethernet networking and control, RAID 1 (VS-100 / 200) or RAID 5 (VX-600) data mirroring, hot swappable drives (VX-600), and the all new Escient HD user interface.

The VS server / player comes in two variants, the VS-100 featuring dual 500GB hard drives, and the VS-200 dual 1TB storage (providing storage approximately equivalent to 100 and 200 movies respectively*). The players can operate as stand-alone units or within a Vision network, with VS units streaming video and audio to up to five client VC-1 players.

Both players are specified with the latest HDMI v1.3 interconnect for transfer of uncompressed high definition video and multi-channel audio formats, and ensuring the highest possible quality transmission of HD video signals to full HD specified projectors and displays. Video upscaling circuitry converts SD video signals to 1080p. Component, composite and S-video outs are included, as are optical and coaxial digital audio and analogue audio outs. Both players include a combi-drive for playback or uploading of CD and DVD content.

The VC-1 is network AV zone player streams video and audio from VS and VX servers, extending playback of video and music throughout the home. As well as HDMI 1.3, a full complement of video and audio outputs, Gigabit Ethernet and USB interconnect ports are features. Completing the line up, the VX-600 media server boasts four 1TB hot-swappable drives in RAID 5 configuration in a 1U rackmont chassis, providing for the expandable mass storage of music, movies and digital photographs. Escient Early Detection Monitoring (EEDM) provides constant monitoring, early detection and warning of disk error. Connectivity includes Gigabit Ethernet and USB ports; up to 10 VS or VC units can simultaneously stream media from a single VX-600 and up to four VX-600s can be shared on a single network.

With Vision, the robust, reliable mass storage and distribution throughout the home of movies and music is more affordable than ever before, with pricing of £2,552.00 / €3,495.00 (RRP / SRP ex VAT) for the VS-100, £3,403.00 / €4,795.00 (RRP / SRP ex VAT) for the VS-200, £1,275.00 / €1,695.00 (RRP / SRP ex VAT) for the VC-1, and £4,680.00 / €6,495.00 (RRP / SRP ex VAT) for the VX-600.

With the back-up of DMi service and support throughout Europe and the guarantee of free system software upgrades from Escient, investment in Vision is an investment in the future of in home AV entertainment.

* based on an average file size of 5GB per movie

www.dm-i.eu