AMX's Smart Wifi system uses Ruckus Wireless technology to deliver improved performance levels. The system comes in two products - Smart WAP and ZoneDirector.

The Smart Wap's antenna array focuses wifi transmissions and steers signals through the best paths towards the receiver while avoiding interference. The antenna delivers up to 6dBi of signal gain and 10dB of interference rejection. With PoE it can be mounted on ceilings to maximise performance.

The WAP combines with the ZoneDirector as part of a centrally-controlled WLAN.

The ZoneDirector allows both simplified WLAN management and advanced wireless services like smart wireless meshing, hotspot authentication, guest networking and dynamic wifi security. It integrates with existing infrastructure and configures through web-based wizard.

AMX says non-wireless experts can deploy the controller in less than 5 minutes.

Go AMX Debuts Smart Wifi system

"The new WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit is a HomePlug AV compatible solution to let consumers use their existing electrical outlets to deliver HD video streams to the home theater, transfer large files or play multi-player online games.

With four ports on each of two adapters included in the kit, the WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit offers users the ability to connect their router and up to seven additional devices to their high-speed network.

A recent Parks Associates survey suggests 42% of consumers are unwilling to connect their TVs to internet (either their router was too far from the device or it appears too complicated to set up).

WD "Livewire" (hmm, maybe the name is not so good when electrical wires are involved?) offers users data transfer speeds up to 200 Mbps.

Go WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit

To be demonstrated at CEDIA 2010, Atlona Technologies adds a wireless KVM extender for PCs using Ultra Wide Band (UWB) to extend DVI signal, along with USB, and stereo audio up to 30 feet away at resolutions up to 1440x1050.

This wireless KVM Extender is designed as a solution for those looking to wirelessly use their computer in a separate part of a room and for netbook users who want a larger keyboard and screen for day-to-day tasks.

The PC Link has the ability to transmit to up to 4 receiver modules, extend desktop images from a laptop to a larger monitor, and mirror a desired display onto a second monitor.

This new Wireless KVM Extender solution allows PC users to connect to a monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers, via a single wireless link with a single adapter that connects to a USB port.

Go Atlona's PCLink

LG, Samsung, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Valens Semiconductor formally launch the HDBaseT Alliance and Version 1.0 of the HDBaseT specification.

The consumer home interconnect is another standard seeking to replace HDMI. Israeli startup Valens uses a powerful DSP to handle distances of up to 100 meters over Category 5e cables with standard Ethernet connectors.

Unlike some alternatives, its technique can also carry up to 100w of power to drive a Blu-Ray player or monitor. HDBaseT claims it can handle whole-home distribution of uncompressed HD video, audio, 100BaseT Ethernet, power over cable and control signals. It supports 1080-pixel progressive video as well as stereo 3-D and 2Kx4K formats.

The alliance expects products compliant with its new spec to be available in the second half of 2010. The group is still developing a compliance program, logo and details of its licensing program. The alliance expects to launch the licensing program before the end of the year.

Go HDBaseT

This autumn you will see Cisco video on retail shelves!

Forbes talked recently with Marthin de Beer, who leads Cisco's emerging technology group.

When asked "…when are we going to see Cisco's consumer video product on the market? And how are you going to compete with Skype?," de Beer told Forbes that Cisco have already started and are in trials through the summer.

"On the shelves before Christmas," declares de Beer. Cisco says it will be the "only HD life-size experience that uses your existing HD TV and your existing broadband." Hmm, unfortunate choice of words when you say "Lifesize…"

Go Cisco Says Home Telepresence On the Way

Home NAS is getting serious...the twin-bay Thecus home is an entry-level NAS with a compelling 4TB of storage via two 3.5" SATA HDDs—and the N2200 can also accommodate 2.5" SATA HDDs.

The N2200 offers several RAID modes including RAID 0, 1 and JBOD. For changing hard disks, the N2200's capabilities to hot swap, hot plug, and auto-rebuild make swapping out hard disks a snap. System status updates are easy to read by LCD, showing icons including hard drive access, LAN connectivity, and USB copy status. Installing the system goes with a single click with the Thecus Smart Utility.

Included is an upgraded Download Manager for HTTP and FTP downloads, and also BitTorrent and eMule. In addition the N2200 comes with multimedia support, with an iTunes server, Photo Web Server, and media streaming via uPNP.

New to the N2200 is dual cam support to connect both IP cams and USB webcams: yes, 4TB is plenty of storage for home surveillance (or even small business).

Thecus General Manager Florence Shih notes, "A great unit for first-time users…"

Go Thecus N2200