Exciting New Solutions for Managing and Instantaneously Accessing Movies, Music and Other Digital Media
Escient will showcase its Vision Series Media Management products at CES 2009 and will be demonstrating the new two-way interface modules for Crestron and AMX as well as control from third party remotes. An innovative breakthrough in “whole home” entertainment networking, Vision Series products* allow users to play and import all their movies, videos, music, and photos using the front-panel drive and home network. Escient’s Vision Series products, including two versions of an all-in-one server/player, Models VS-100 and VS-200, as well as the VC-1 networked audio/video zone player and the large-capacity VX-600 media server, provide consumers with elegant new solutions for managing, accessing and enjoying movies and music throughout the home, all via a single intuitive interface. **
The VS-100 and VS-200 are advanced hard drive-based components, with RAID backup, that let users store, manage and stream all their movies, music and photos to a host of devices within their home network. Throughout the Vision Series line, advanced lifestyle-enhancing features and capabilities are integrated smoothly, including direct access to Rhapsody*** — the leading digital music service offering on-demand playback of millions of songs, exclusive content and professionally programmed Rhapsody Channels for enjoyment in any room of the home.
Escient’s 5th-generation Vision Series products allow users to store movies, music, and digital photos and instantly enjoy them from any room of the home through the all-new high definition Escient User Interface. Through a variety of advanced easy-to-use features, the Escient Vision Series makes it possible for users to watch a DVD on the HD projector in the theater, listen to music in the bedroom, or view a slideshow of favorite family photos (complete with an audio soundtrack) on the new HD display in the den.
DVD Upscaling to 1080p
The Escient Vision Series products provide the most sought after features by custom installers and consumers who wish to create a “digitally connected” home. The VS-100 and VS-200 all-in-one server players and the VC-1 networked audio/video zone player all feature DVD upscaling to 1080p for the ultimate in image quality from all sources. All three also feature external control capability via RS-232 and TCP/IP networks.
The VS-100 provides dual 500GB**** drives while the VS-200 provides dual 1TB**** drives, and both also feature reliable RAID 1 redundancy. The VC-1 is a high-performance networked audio/video zone player that can stream audio and video from Vision servers, allowing playback of music, movies, and photos from any room of the home. Finally, the large capacity media server, Model VX-600 features four 1TB**** drives in a RAID 5 configuration and provides storage expansion capability for Vision VS and VC devices. The VX-600 provides Escient EDMS (Early Detection Monitoring System) for reliable installations in any networked home.
Continuing Escient’s unmatched excellence in integrating digital media management systems into state of the art audio/video systems, the Vision series supports the proven external control capabilities of the Escient Fireball Media Management product line.
Vision Works Great with FireBall
To ensure that all Escient customers will be able to benefit from the Vision Series introduction, Escient award-winning FireBall media management products capable of running firmware version 4.2 or higher will receive a free update, allowing them to interact with Vision servers and players. FireBall servers will be able to share music content stored internally with the Vision VS-100 and VS-200, as well as the VC-1 player and all Vision servers will be able to share music content stored internally with any FireBall. In addition, Escient has created a new on-screen user interface skin for hard drive based FireBall units. The new user interface features the Vision color scheme.
Escient’s Vision Series products are currently available at the following suggested retail prices: VS-100 (SRP: $3,999), VS-200 (SRP: $5,999), VC-1 (SRP: $1,999), VX-600 (SRP: $7,999).
* Does not include ability to play Blu-ray or HD DVD discs.
**A home network is required for networking functionality
***The Vision connects directly to Rhapsody via an Internet connection and is ready to go out of the box with a 30-day free trial for the Rhapsody Unlimited service (Rhapsody post-free trial period pricing is $12.99/month).
**** One gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes and one terabyte, or TB, equals one trillion bytes when referring to hard drive capacity.
