If you’re not into professional audio, you may not be familiar with Cambridge Audio, but for those of us who are familiar with Cambridge Audio, this year’s announcements were very exciting. From a compact digital to analog converter (DAC) that would have made our lives at CES much easier this year to a full home theater receiver with network streaming, Internet radio and, of course, a built-in DAC, Cambridge certainly came full-force to the convention.

We got to see the upgrade to their DacMagic product, the DacMagic Plus, a simple way to convert almost any source, digital or analog, to full 24-bit/384kHz audio through up-sampling. In addition, it has ground-fault noise reduction, meaning no more humming because of the things that are plugged in around it. We’ve all experienced plugging our computer into a stereo system or mixer and there is a constant hum on the speakers – not with this bad boy. All of this is housed in a box about the size of an average digital camcorder. This is a must-have for anyone running a recording studio or even a podcast/online radio/TV show.

Interview by Scott Ertz of F5 Live for the TechPodcast Network.

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My interview with John Egan, who was representing the HomeGrid Forum shed some light on what’s up and coming for G.hn technology. Just in case you’re wondering what that is, G.hn is a home networking technology that uses existing (legacy) wiring in the house to transmit data with bandwidth of up to 1 gigabit per second, hence the tag line, “Any wire, anywhere.” Some of the heavy hitters that participate in the HomeGrid Forum such as AT&T, British Telecom, Best Buy and Marvell Semiconductor understand there is good reason for adherence to this standard as it benefits both consumers and service providers. The consumer is afforded a choice in service provider and the service provider themselves have assurance that all their existing and potential customers have the opportunity to take advantage of the service provider’s technology. Simply put, the standard uses rules and guidelines that helps prevent fragmentation of the market. When these products hit the market be sure to look for the HomeGrid Forum logo which reassures interoperability in your house.

A definite plus with G.hn technology is that so long as the house has electrical outlets it can be taken advantage of. If you’re reading this and you live in a mansion the question of range could come in to play but through the use of nodes, that act as repeaters, the data can travel long distances without any signal loss. Based on some estimates from service companies, not having to run any new wiring saves 4 man hours of installation time plus materials. This help make the use of G.hn technology easy, efficient and cost effective. More good news is that consumers can also expect prices for new technology to be comparable to the old technology that is currently in use.

Interview by Jon Wurm of F5 Live for the TechPodcast Network.

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