OTHER TECH

Meda Systems'Round the house audio in a do-it-all box Traditional house-wide music systems are built around large stacks of source equipment - CD players, AM/FM/satellite radio tuners - connected to a preamplifier that ties into stacks of amplifiers that are then operated with an elaborate control system. The Meda Systems Brávo server turns this concept on its ear by reducing a multiroom system to just two or three boxes - you don't even need a remote client!

The Brávo systems are numbered according to how many songs can be streamed simultaneously, with the Brávo 4 capable of streaming four at the same time. In addition, it can access two Internet radio stations at once and has a stereo analog input for your old tape deck.

SETUP A breakout connector provides color-coded RCA stereo outputs for Zones 1 to 4 as well as the analog input. A coaxial digital audio output feeds a fifth zone. You connect these cables to a multichannel amplifier, and you're ready to feed speakers in each zone. VGA and S-video outputs connect to a TV for displaying the Brávo's interface. An Ethernet port is provided for network connection (some configuration is required to make full use of Brávo's features).

LOADING MEDIA Music can be ripped one disc at a time using the internal CD drive. While the Brávo can play virtually any format, it encodes only in WAV or MP3. Fortunately, any music stored on any computer on the network is fair game. The files can either be copied to the Brávo's hard drive or streamed directly. Brávo loads album information from the Internet for ripped music and reads the ID3 tags that carry track details on existing music files.

The Brávo can also be set up for Internet drive mirroring. This means that if you own a second home - with another Brávo installed - you can access all of your music in both homes.

The Brávos automatically check each other's hard drives at set intervals and copy or delete as needed to keep each drive current. I tested this feature from South Carolina with a second Brávo set up in our New York City offices, and it worked perfectly. Very cool.

OPERATION Brávo doesn't come with a remote control, but it supports a variety of control options. A wireless keyboard/mouse ($199) is handy for initial setup. You can also use any USB or PS2-compatible wired keyboard or mouse. Two-way communication is possible via the RS-232 outputs to support high-end control systems.

A ten-band digital equalizer lets you tailor the sound for each room or music selection. To get the tunes cranking throughout the house, the MZ-Synch mode lets you play the same music in any or all zones with no delay whatsoever. The scrolling front-panel display is handy because you can see what's playing in each of the five zones.

The slickest option is a software program called Meda Líbré that resides inside the Brávo. This can be loaded onto a networked PC, a Windows CE device, or portable devices that use Internet Explorer as a browser. Meda loaned me an HP iPAQ Pocket PC with my test system. Once I loaded the Líbré software (a quick and painless process), the iPAQ provided the same interface you'd see on a connected TV, giving me access to all zones and all media.

I loved walking around the house with the iPAQ, selecting music, Internet radio stations, and so forth on the fly. With prices starting around $200 for a Pocket PC, you could put one in every room and never need any other control systems.

PERFORMANCE The Brávo performed perfectly - except for the one time all of my music files vanished after I tried to delete one song! Meda quickly fixed the bug with a software update. And a couple of times the Internet radio stations wouldn't play on the first try. But my more typical experience was instant access to CD-quality audio through a terrific interface. And Brávo's hard drives are rated for 1 million hours of use. This baby is built to last!