After meeting up with
B. Gates here at CES again our next goal was outfitting the official Engadget offices like his famously automated home. To that end, we checked in with Monster Cable and its Einstein Home Control System,
previously sighted at CEDIA, in more fleshed out form. This completely customizable setup, based on what Monster claims is a totally open API that should allow other manufacturers to easily create compatible devices, promises to deliver whatever media you desire to any room in the house. Pictured above is the Nucleus, the all in one DVD player, VOIP phone and remotely accessed control center of the Einstein system. Pricing depends on what components are installed, but should come in under other
similar setups, Check out the galleries for a closer look at the rest of the components.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rick Lyon @ Jan 11th 2007 6:53PM
Monster Frankenstein is a more appropriate title for that hideous creature.
CES Attendee @ Jan 11th 2007 7:20PM
Isn't this just PlutoHome (http://www.plutohome.com), but for thousands of $$$ instead of for free?
sub-culture @ Jan 11th 2007 7:42PM
Considering how litigious Monster is, I really doubt their idea of "open API" is the same as everyone elses. Even if for some reason you don't mind their practices, their products are highly overpriced.
Pete @ Jan 15th 2007 12:07AM
This is the PlutoHome team's software running on custom hardware. While this stuff is expensive (though pretty much all the custom home stuff is these days), it's intended to be an out-of-the-box solution to a fairly complicated task. If you're into tweaking (as I assume most Engadget readers are) you can download the software yourself and make your own similar system) at the URL posted above (http://www.plutohome.com)
The Plutohome software is sweet. While it still could use a little polishing, it ties together a lot of open-source tools (asterisk, MythTV, etc) into a very neat, very intuitive package. It's totally worth downloading and playing around with it. The fact that it's all GPL code means you're not held hostage to an OS like the MCE-based solutions