A senior Cisco executive in the USA has told SHN that the networking giant is set to make aninvestment in an Australia wireless audio Company this week.
uring the past few months Cisco has been assessing an investment in Avega Systems an Australian start up Company that specialises in the development of wireless audio technology. The investment that is set to be between $7 and $10 million will allow the Company to accelerate their R&D work.
SHN was first told of Cisco’s interest at the recent CES show when we also revealed that Cisco was set to sue Apple over the iPhone.Avega executives in Australia have confirmed that a key announcement is set to be made next week but have refused to comment any further. In an exclusive interview at CES 07 the company has revealed that a major US audio company will start delivering the Avega bookcase Wireless speakers to market by July 07.
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The company is also in discussions with Samsung and during the past 12 months has held commercial discussions with Belkin, Linksys and Apple. A senior executive of a major US IT Company that has held discussions with Avega Systems but does not want to be named said “The Australia IT media claims that they are leaders in IT coverage however they have done a very poor job of giving this Company coverage SmartHouse is among the few. Even the US media has got exited about the technology that this Company is developing. There have been stories in mass US newspapers like the Wall Street Journal as well as specialist audio magazines and Internet sites but very little in Australia. In the US the media tend to get behind start up Companies but not in Australia. During the next six months this Company will start to go places and then the Australian IT will wake up to them which is a pity as it is in the early days that a Company needs exposure”.
They added “I am confident that we will be announcing a deal with this Company within the next 12 months”.
Avega Systems was recently granted a $1.3 million dollar Austrade commercial loan the company is also funded by Professor Heil Weste who in 2000 sold
Wireless technology Group Radiata to Cisco Systems for $500 million dollars. Also an investor in the company is Australian VC Company Technology Partners.Radiata is a leading supplier of chipsets for high-speed wireless networks. It was founded in 1997 in Sydney and developed its technology on the basis of research conducted by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization).
During a presentation to SmartHouse the company demonstrated excellent sound reproduction via its wireless small shelf speakers which are now going into production and from large Hi-Fi speakers. They also demonstrated a song being pulled up on a mobile phone and sent via a Wi-Fi network to the wireless speakers.
Stuart Bryce a director of Avega said “The technology we have developed sits on a circuit board. It allows video and audio to be streamed to speakers as well as audio to Internet radio. We also have the capability to go from a mobile to a wireless speaker”.
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| The Avega systems wireless audio control card that goes into a pair of wireless speakers |
Communications Manager for Avega Peter Celinski said “We have signed a commercial agreement with a major US Hi-Fi manufacturer and this deal will be announced shortly. We also in talks with several other leading brands. Our plan is to licence our technology to manufacturers while we concentrate on manufacturing the controllers for our technology”.
