Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Huge Meridian News today - Acquisition of Sooloos!

"... supposedly, was to benefit from video processing research at Genesis..."

Ok, this is what I was refering to, hence the ironic tone.
Very promising at the time it was announced despite F. was already a bit in decline if I remember correctly (not on the price front though), but at the arrival really disappointing concretely on the products side.
But I also really hope this lead to cutting edge products again as they were during the golden era of MHR etc. We'll see...

j

Here is a link that mentions a little more on the video integration > http://www.customretailer.net/story...gory=None&section=Unknown&page=1

No need whatsoever for 192kHz.

The Sooloos buy is Major news, including by showing a future direction for M and therefore me.

The Sooloos Media Server is even now a very highly regarded product. It's Stereophile's 2008 Product of the Year and was reviewed in September 2008 at

http://stereophile.com/mediaservers/908sooloos/index.html

M obviously are aware of the worth of what they have acquired. We know M's benefits and for me now the worth of Sooloos. Consumers who are more aware of media servers will now get to know more about M.

This must be the big news M indicated it would release at the end of 2008. Let's hope there will be more big news at January 2009 CES.

Well, it will be interesting to see what happens. I'd love the idea of an M a/v server!

The Sooloos system is a distributed server solution vs a distributed streamer. For many customers, that all in one aspect (from content loading to storage to playback) is appealing vs dealing with a computer for rips and storage and the streamer for playback. Also, having played with the Sooloos system on several occasions and as a current owner of a Sonos, I can say that Sooloos is even easier to use than Sonos. Sure, Sonos does more with internet streaming support for Sirius, Rhapsody (coming soon to Sooloos), Pandora, etc (although customers outside the US can't use any of those), but the UI could be better. The Sonos iPhone app definitely improved things, but I still think Sooloos does a better job.

They also do some cool things that let you explore your collection in ways (called focus and swim) that Sonos will likely never try to do themselves. I could try explaining it, but you can check out 2 good reviews of the Sooloos with explanations of the UI here:

http://www.Sooloos.com/www/press/Sooloos-ToneAudio.pdf

http://www.stereophile.com/mediaservers/908sooloos/ - this one was from Sept 2008 and led to Stereophile naming Sooloos their 2008 product of the year.


The various system components (source, control, store) are connected via ethernet. You can have as many networked storage units as you like, so you can add until your heart's content.

Jeff

This is indeed very big news. I've never seen a Sooloos system, but as a career software professional, an avid classical music listener, and small-time music library software developer, what I hear about the Sooloos system is very close to what I have been attempting to build for myself for a couple of years.

On the other hand, if you break down the Sooloos system, its competitive advantage is nowhere near what M has brought to the table in the digital playback arena. The Sooloos competitive position comes down to:

1. Aesthetics. The core technology - processor, storage, display, optical drive, sound card, etc - is common with anything you can buy in mass market superstores. But Sooloos delivers it in a much more attractive physical package.

2. Data. By far, the most important advantage. Sooloos uses AMG metadata - the same data that powers AMG's web sites like allmusic.com. Accumulating all of that comprehensive data about each album, artist, composer, contributor, album track, etc, etc is a pretty disciplined, labor intensive process, but it makes all the difference. Unfortunately, that metadata is contributed by AMG, an independent company which licenses its products to all comers with sufficient wherewithal. It is not a unique advantage which accrues to Sooloos or, now, Meridian.

3. Software - Sooloos provides a software-based interface which makes all of the metadata useful and accessible. That software, though, as far as I can tell from reviews and desriptions, is not unique in any core technological or even presentational aspect. I know, because I've built very similar prototype interfaces (before I ever heard of Sooloos) myself. That is no slam on the Sooloos people - just a comment on the ease with which data presentation and navigation software can be built these days.

All of this means, I hope, that Meridian has plans to advance Sooloos technology in ways that uniquely leverage their advantage in digital playback - DSP, integration with processors, multichannel audio, and the like.

From a marketing perspective, though, this has to advance the M brand in the short term. Kudos!

How ironic...

From the last Q&A:

Q: With Meridian's direct competitor (Linn) currently offering no less than four separate 'digital stream players' (ala Squeezebox), what is the likelihood that Meridian, at long last, will produce a similar hi-end product(s)?

A: This is the second time in one session Linn has been falsely accused of being a legitimate competitor :-) This is all part of a bigger question which we want to defer. Meridian is always looking at future products and has a wide range of technologies both in house and under development. However they cannot discuss specifics about future products. Meridian is always looking at ways to better serve their customers and would hope to do a better job on sound and UI than the ‘competition`.

Bob ought to enter into politics.

Fantastic news...well done to Bob and the team! This is undoubtedly where future market expansion lies, and what many on the forum have been demanding for some time now. I think this bodes very well for Meridian's future. When I can afford it, I think I'll be in on this one, and I know it will be with the full blessing of Mrs M. I am sure that mine is not the only household in the land where higher domestic authority could see the treasured CD & DVD collection (and the space it occupies) far enough!

Cheers

George

Looking on the Sooloos website I saw this section on "The Music" page:


Now that could save a lot of time! Best of both worlds - back-up on CD and in the system itself.

The Sooloos Shop is potential (smaller) revenue stream and keeps banging their (now Meridian) drum. Builds familiarity with the brand from another angle.
Cheers,

Ed.

Great news Meridian!

I have a couple of things on my mind:

1. Spotify support - The biggest develoment since itunes song/album online payment model available right now! www.spotify.com (competition is already gearing up for this one!
2. NFS and DLNA support - To use the NAS Storage we already have setup.
3. Video - Use our libraries of movies and series that we already have.

Sincerely,
Crion

Streaming On Demand Audio and Video is the future!

Great to hear that M are moving into the Server market.

However, I have a couple of questions on the Sooloos model:-

Obviously they are selling convenience - they will burn your CD library for you, and put the data into a format compatible with their front end (with album artwork etc).

They will then source all your future CD purchases and supply these alongside the data for your new system.

Fair enough, but does that mean that it is impossible to do your own burning, and source your own CD's in the future?

ie. Does this system hook you into making future purchases only through M/Sooloos in the future?

And whatabout buying downloads? Is this not compatible with this system either?

Of course it might be that I am completely missing the point...!

Cheers

Neil