| SPECIAL REPORT: music server market cued for five years of growth |
Jan. 16, 2008
 ABI Research released a study predicting a shift in the digital music server market from desktop PCs to dedicated music servers. Revenue for dedicated music server hardware, including embedded-Windows products, is expected to grow to $3.2 billion by year-end 2012, says ABI.
The dedicated music server market has been hampered by high costs and difficulty of set-up, says ABI. Yet, dropping component prices, the use of standards-based off-the-shelf components and industry standards groups such as the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) are helping to expand the market.
Stated research director Michael Wolf, "Many of the necessary forces are beginning to come together to enable the move of networked audio beyond the early adopter market, and networked audio servers will stand to benefit. Standards-based software and lower costs on mass storage, as well as dedicated off-the-shelf processors that enable networked media solutions are becoming a reality."
The majority of dedicated music server products have been based on embedded operating systems other than Windows. Linux music servers have proliferated over the past two years, with devices like the Sonos Digital Music System (ZonePlayer), Pinnacle Audio Athenaeum, and Russound SMS3. Additionally, virtually every Linux-based NAS (network-attached storage) appliance now boasts built-in DLNA-compliant media advertising and sharing capabilities.
Cost issues aside, this may be because Microsoft and its partners traditionally preferred to promote purchase of full-featured PCs, where audio and video support were just two out of many other functions. The company's first DLNA-compliant Universal Plug and Play AV (UPnP AV) server was a stand-alone Windows application called Windows Media Connect (WMC), which, among other things, allowed playing PC-based media files on the Xbox 360.
Subsequently, WMC was renamed Home Media Ecosystem (HME), and integrated into Windows Media Player, which handles the streaming of media to client devices. HME is similar to regular Windows file sharing, but faster, Microsoft says, since it is designed to work in a trusted environment and omits authentication.
Meanwhile, Microsoft also unveiled Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE), with a variety of enhancements targeted at TV recording and media management. Devices based on MCE, even if packaged to look like stereo components, are nonetheless still general-purpose PCs. This was true of HP's z545 Digital Entertainment Center, one of the first MCE offerings introduced in 2004, and remains the case with NEC's Lui server, based on Windows Vista and introduced in December 2007.
In 2007, Microsoft released Windows Home Server (WHS), which blurs the boundaries between a PC and a dedicated music server. Based on the Windows Server 2003 SP2 operating system, WHS is designed to run without a video card, delivering its configuration interface to a remote PC via Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).
Offering media sharing, centralized backup, printer sharing, and other functionality, WHS is promoted by Microsoft as part of preconfigured devices, one example of which is HP's MediaSmart Server EX475. Still, the company also sells WHS in a freely available "OEM" edition (approximately $200), which can be installed on any PC that meets the hardware requirements.
Dedicated music servers based on Windows
The above notwithstanding, Windows-based devices that truly qualify as "dedicated music servers" do exist. One example is Exceptional Innovation's LifeStorage digital media storage server (see below), which runs Windows XP Embedded.
LifeStorage digital media server
(Click image for more information)
Another product -- in which Windows XP Embedded actually replaced Linux -- is Elan Home Systems' VIA!dj II (below). The company claims the switch to XPe allowed the addition of "literally dozens of new dealer-requested features," while making the system faster and more powerful.
Elan's Windows XPe-based VIA!dj II and its touch-panel controller
(Click image for further information)
Windows XP Embedded was also recently employed by Real Digital Media for its Neocast Media Player GS. This device is designed to store promotions and corporate communications, and send them over a digital signage network.
Availability
All the above-mentioned hardware products are still being marketed actively, except for HP's z545. ABI's 45-page report, called "Networked Home Audio," is available here.
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