CES EXCLUSIVE: Avega an Australian start up company is set to hit the big time with several international partners set to sign contracts for their wireless audio distribution system.
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.
The company is also in discussions with Samsung and during the past 12 months has held commercial discussions with Belkin, Linksys and Apple.
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.
Click to enlargeThe AIOS board alongside a credit card
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”.
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”.
Avega Technology is capable of delivering the following:
Networked AV Receiver Devices
These devices receive media over the network and play it. They include Wi-Fi “iPod-docks”, Wi-Fi loudspeakers (stereo up to 7.1 surround), bedroom radios as well as video displays that can operate cooperatively with audio receivers. One of the challenges is in ensuring distributed devices present a single, unified interface to media sources and controllers.
Networked AV Server Devices
These devices present legacy sources, such as iPods, set-top boxes, CD/DVD players etc. into networked UPnP servers. Aios includes intelligent media management software to greatly improve bandwidth efficiency, including efficient multicast.
Networked Controllers
Avega’s control software and hand-held Wi-Fi graphical remote controller provide comprehensive device configuration, device management and media management and playback control capability. Support is provided for multi-channel (eg. 5.1) and multi-room (multi-zone) management and control for playback of a number of independent audio streams across distinct zones.
AV-Grade Networking Infrastructure
Avega’s AV grade media streaming software provides for efficient distribution of audio and video throughout the home to networked media receiver devices. This includes access points running Avega software to prioritise streaming of audio and video over internet download and other home network traffic.
Avega was showing off its Aios-powered Wi-Fi speakers in a private room at CES.
