Cisco is about to open a can of wireless whoop ass on Sonos as it trots out its music streamer. The new kit can send sounds around the house just like Sonos, but also hooks up to other kit without cables.
We took it for a spin at CES, and it’s seriously impressive. There are three boxes, from the non-amplified Player, which hooks up to amps and powered speakers, to the 50w amplified Director, which comes with optional speakers, and the all-powerful Conductor, a full-blown stereo, with a built in CD player and USB socket.
Each receiver has Wi-Fi built in, but also boasts ethernet ports for anyone using a wired connection or powerline adapters. There’s also a seriously Sonos-esque remote, with a touchscreen and clickwheel controls.
The whole system is modular, and there’s no “central point” for your music. The Cisco set-up simply recognises all networked sources, such as its own Media Hub, PCs and DNLA devices, like PlayStation 3 and Xbox consoles or mobile phones. They’ll all pop up as sources automatically, so no matter where your music is it’ll be acessible.
There’s even the option to hook an iPod dock up to the system, which will make the music from any docked ‘Pod accessible through the remote, and playable in any room, just as if it were a networked drive.
It’s all eye-wideningly clever, and since it’s priced just under Sonos’ entry point, will inject some much-needed competition into multi-room music.
Cisco says the system will come to the Netherlands and Denmark in March, followed by other European countries. It’s hopeful the UK will get it before the end of the year, but isn’t making any promises. Frankly, after playing with it for almost an hour at CES, we can’t wait to get hold of it at home.
TBC | £TBC | Cisco
