Summary
A lot of new homes today are wired for network capabilities. With these capabilities there is the possibility to run audio and video anywhere in the house using a central server.
Background
Right now there are many forms of entertainments systems available on the market, ranging from small audio towers to big entertainment systems that are capable of playing all types of media applications. In order to play all forms of media these systems consist of many modules. These modules usually take up a lot of room and have to be stored in cabinets or closets. Because there are many modules, there are many different wires that have to be run between these modules and not all wires are compatible with I/O ports on other devices. Then you have to get more devices to make the modules you have compatible, which escalates the problem even more. Moreover the only devices that have streaming capabilities are very expensive and they don’t stream video.
Proposal
Our proposal consists of home entertainment system that will be able to play most media applications. The device should be small and compact to take the place of the multiple module towers that we are accustom to. It should be fairly priced so almost everybody can afford it, and most of all it should be able to stream audio and video files over a CAT5 network that is wired in most modern homes.
To implement the above requirements we propose the following. There will be two devices built. One will be a small plug and play audio control box, that will be able to be plugged in anywhere in the house using a internet connection. This device will be able to request MP3 files from the server and decode them. For user ease the device is going to be controlled in two different ways. One way is through push buttons right on the device, but since not everybody wants to get up to change a song an IR remote control will be implemented to change to next song in the folder. The device will also have a 40Watt amplifier to drive speakers that will be plugged right into it. The second device will be a little bigger, because it will take the place of a DVD player right next to the TV. This device will have all the features of the small audio control box, but on top of that it will be video compatible. Like the other device it will request MPEG/WMA/DivX format files decode them and send them to the TV to be displayed. Audio files will be sent directly to the speakers. This device will also have a DVD-ROM to play DVDs. The DVD player doesn’t have to have any interface with the server. It should play any DVD that is inserted into the device. The controls of the device will be utilized through few push buttons on the device, as well as an IR remote control with a Text Overlay on the TV to display the menu and the requested files. The amplifier is optional on this device since TV comes with its own.
Conclusion
These two devices will be able to replace most of the existing modules
that people have in their entertainment system. On top of that they will
have streaming capabilities which is a big advantage in the modern evolution
of home networks.
