5.1 Sound Card Delivers 3 Streams of iTunes

An anonymous reader writes "How do you distribute simultaneous streams of DRM-protected iTunes from a single computer to multiple rooms of the house? Autonomic Controls demonstrated a unique solution at the recent Electronic House Expo (EHX). The company's Media Control Server EX software turns a PC with a 5.1 sound card into a three-zone music distribution server. (Add a second card for six outputs). At EHX, the solution was demonstrated with a multiroom audio system from NuVo, whose keypads could be used to browse and select songs, playlists, genres, artists, etc. The Autonomic software merges WMA and iTunes files into a single library for easy access." I have mixed feelings about this: on one hand, this is a really clever idea and a cool hack. On the other hand, the fact that DRM makes something like this necessary is truly infuriating.

Comments

Re:Time is on our side... yes it is.

[mollymoo]

You can buy a decent used piano, or a nice guitar, for the price of all that stuff. Want music? Go play some.

I tried that, but once I managed to get the piano set up I had difficulty working out which pedals did what and I couldn't see through the windscreen very well. Frankly, I thought it was a little dangerous. Now I only drive while playing the oboe.

O'Rly ?

[The_Angry_Canadian]

Add a second card for six outputs

No wai !

Add a third card for nine outputs
Add a fourth card for twelve outputs !

... Add a beowulf cluster of cards and it'll summon Nathalie Portman to dance for you !