Polaroid, the instant camera and sunglasses company that’s reinvented itself for the digital age, used CES to launch a system designed to bring all your digital content – video, audio and pictures – together and distribute it around the home.
Freescape is based around the Digital Media Exchange unit above, which is able to record HD TV as well as storing all those various media files, and manage them for streaming to remote Digital Media Extenders and other devices.
In addition to its extensive rear-panel connections, including component video inputs, HDMI output and electrical/optical digital outs, the unit can handle a huge range of digital media formats. These include DivX, JPEG and MPEG, as well as all the common compressed audio formats.
Recordings can be made from cable or satellite boxes, as well as via an internal TV tuner, and from video devices such as VCRs and camcorders and other digital audio and video components.
The unit also has USB 2.0 sockets, Ethernet and 802.11b/g wireless networking and an eight-in-one memory card reader..
The files stored on the 160GB hard disc are then managed using the simple onscreen user interface seen here.
As well as being played back on the Exchange unit, typically via the main family TV, all this content can now be shared with a wide range of devices around the home – and it’s all done wirelessly.
The Digital Media Extender is designed to be connected with remote TVs, while the content on the Digital Media Exchange can also be accessed by networked computers.
Digital_Portable_Multimedia_Player scaledIn addition, the system will include a Wireless Media Player (pictured) – a wireless-equipped device able to access all the content stored on the main server, copy it and take it with you.
There’s also a Wireless Multimedia Frame, smaller than a conventional digital ‘picture frame’ yet able to stream pictures, video and audio from the Exchange unit.
You can view a demonstration of the Freescape system here.
