I'd like to try to explain what we're doing with the work on lighting, and where it may lead. It's part of a grand plan.
Media Center has been a core product for JRiver for many years. We began development of it in 1998! Think of that. We're getting close to 20 years of continuous development. There must be a prize somewhere that they award for such stubborn determination.
MC has become a planet around which many other products orbit. Not only our products like Gizmo and JRemote, but great third party plug-ins and skins, and manufacturers of DAC's and media streamers and players like Pono, services like HDtracks and Acoustic Sounds. The list is long and wide.
One of the most challenging aspects of doing this development is the support of a diverse community of devices, and this diversity is increasing at a more and more rapid pace. In fact, it is about to explode. You may have seen me writing about connected light bulb testing and other such oddities, but the Internet of Things (IoT) is starting to be real. It is now visible in consumer stores like Best Buy and FNAC, but it is going to become pervasive. It will be everywhere and it will become as normal as a kid walking down the street looking at his phone.
Having had significant experience helping people get devices working, I began to think about a more orderly approach to device support. I thought it would be nice if the installation, setup, and operation of devices was both better automated and more understandable. Setup that is similar. Operation via similar User Interfaces (UI's).
Our lighting work is the first implementation of this idea.
Panel is the front end app that faces the user.
Engen is the back end workhorse that does the ugly stuff to talk with devices. Z-Wave is the hardware radio protocol that we chose to work with first. Lighting is our initial focus so that we have a product we can sell.
I think that even this early in its development, it is a marvel. It installs easily on Linux, OSX, or Windows, just like Media Center, and Panel is available from a browser, requiring only an IP address to connect to Media Center and Engen.
I believe its Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF) or Partner Acceptance Factor (PAF) will be very high. Panel uses touch screens on phones, tablets, and notebooks very effectively. All the complexity is hidden. It's just big buttons.
I've been waiting for applause for this work, but so far it's been only polite applause. There has been no deafening thunderous uproar.
Wondering why, I had to go back to the days when big changes happened at JRiver and even before. In 1979, I bought an Apple II to use in my wood stove store (yes, a wood stove store). People who came in the store looked at it behind the counter and said, "What's that?". I explained that it was a micro computer (PC wasn't used until IBM's first micro). "Why would you need that?" and so on. It was totally exotic to almost everyone, and the interest was luke warm at best.
Two years later, IBM came out with a Personal Computer (PC). It was $5000, had two floppy drives, and the OS was extra. It was beyond reach for most people, but businesses began to buy them and even a few individuals. Within two years, the prices had dropped, the performance had increased, and almost everyone knew what they were. The uptake was very rapid.
I read somewhere that revolutions take a long time in order to create the conditions needed for them to occur, but that the actual revolution occurs very quickly.
We're in the condition-building phase now. Lots of great technology exists, but it's difficult and expensive. A modest automated lighting system like Lutron in a house can cost thousands of dollars. With JRiver Engen, our new software, I think we're under $1000 for a typical system, and prices for the hardware will only drop. Switches that are $50 now will be $25 in a few years. Z-Wave or ZigBee radio components will probably be added to computers, just as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth were.
Ease of use will come through better software and a better device driver delivery system. We envision a world with device descriptions and drivers that can be downloaded by anyone and "snapped in" to software, so that you're up and running quickly.
Device discovery is another important aspect. Apple uses something called bonjour. It's based on software from Sun. We're using Simple Service Discovery Protocol (
SSDP) in a couple of places. This lets us find a new device without knowing its IP address.
What does it mean for Media Center? Think of this as an extension of our past work. Much of it will apply to the devices that Media Center currently supports. In the future, it should be easier to add a new piece of hardware, whatever it may be.
And if all of this seems unnecessary, let's see what people think in a year or two. When they are ready, we want to be there.
Jim Hillegass
CEO, JRiver
Author
Topic: What's all the fuss about lighting? (Read 7460 times)