We have a set of hardware-based systems coming up. These are based on the A-Tech cases, so they are very attractive, and they have the CQSL logo etched on the front panel. They will come with a full CQC software license.
The basic system will be avaliable first and will basically this:
- 8 digital I/O
- 4 IR zones (each can be a sensor or blaster)
- 2 40GB drives in a RAID 1 configuration for redundancy
- Can also do a solid state configuration if you want
- 256MB of memory (for straight automation 256 is enough)
Whatever is a recent good performance, high quality Motherboard/CPU, far more than sufficient for the job.
- Of course the usual onboard audio, video, ethernet, usb
This will be the core system, which is oriented towards straight automation. There are slots free, so more IR and I/O can be added if needed.
Built on top of that will be the MC-1, which will crank the drives to whatever is the latest high capacity, reliable drives. Only music will be on disk, so they don't need to be really fast and loud. They'll be in the 300GB to 400GB'ish range, again in a RAID1 configuration for redundancy since super-high speed isn't an issue.
So it'll be both an automation controller and media manager. It'll work via external changers or media servers for movie content, though it will require a driver. We'll start with the Sony 777 changer, then add others. It will include our own ripping support for music, and meta data retreival for music and movies. The meta data will be stored on-disk and will work for the DVDs in the changer. It will not be the all-seeing music repository that supports 15 different audio formats. It'll be designed for simplicity and ease of use, so it'll probably at first just support one lossless and one lossy codec, maybe the same codec (e.g. WMA.)
We can also do a RAID5 configuration if you want, though it's probably not warranted just for music. We didn't go for a super-compact enclosure for the pure automation system so that we can build the MC-1 and AC-1 on the exact same chassis and configuration.
Subsequently, probably 1.7, we will also provide, for those folks who want to do so, an outboard enclosure, also from A-Tech so it'll be a nice matched system, for a multi-terrabyte movie repository. We cannot support ripping for these for legal reasons, but we'll still be providing meta data retrieval for that data. In the meantime, if you want to set up your own movie repository, that's certainly doable. As long as there is a way to get to the meta data, such as via DVD Profiler, we can support such repositories. It just needs a driver. We'll get a DVD Profiler driver out soon. I've already looked at it and it won't be too terribly hard. It just needs some way to indicate where the actual files are.
