Netgear Unveils Eight Networking Devices to Spur Anytime/Anywhere Video Content
LAS VEGAS -- Calling 2011 “the tipping point,” when the number of connected consumer electronics, mobile devices and tablet PCs surpasses the number of PCs in the home, Netgear CEO Patrick Lo said at a CES news conference Wednesday that his company is entering the “second phase” of its tech roadmap that began 15 years ago. Netgear is launching at CES eight consumer products to connect mobile and entertainment devices to the Internet, to deal with the “major shift in how people use the Internet.”
HD streaming is a major part of the new product focus, Lo said, as more consumers want to pull movie and TV content from the Internet. The new premium-edition N600 wireless dual-band gigabit router is designed to be the backbone of a wireless home entertainment network, he said. Features include a clear-channel selector said to automatically find the clearest channel, a printer sharing feature and Stream HD, said to improve streaming start-up times for videos, maximize bandwidth and reduce buffering delays that have plagued video streaming.
The ReadyNAS Ultra 2 network attached storage device streams media to local and remote handhelds, desktops and game consoles, the company said. Netgear partnered with TiVo to enable that company’s customers to expand capacity by offloading recorded programs to the ReadyNAS. It’s also using Orb Networks transcoding technology that “puts the right media formats on the right screens and streams movies on handhelds in any connected location,” the company said. The device is DLNA-compatible.
Additional Netgear products for 2011 include a Wi-Fi range extender, a powerline router, a dual-band gigabit router, a HomePlug-enabled adapter, and Netgear Genie, a free home network dashboard app that allows consumers to monitor, connect, and control their home network, the company said. Genie can also diagnose and automatically fix network connectivity issues, it said. The new 3DHD wireless home theater networking kit promises multiple jitter-free 1080p high-definition 3D video streams simultaneously throughout the home. According to the company, any connected device has an instant connection to the network. Four transmitters and four receivers are built into each 3DHD wireless adapter for MIMO transmission said to boost Wi-Fi range and reliability.
Netgear’s NeoTV HD media player allows users to play digital videos, photos, or music directly on TV whether media is stored locally, on the home network or on the Internet, the company said. Video resolution is 1080p and the device is said to be the first on the market to be able to “search around a home network and categorize content into one library,” the company said. Prices and availability were not given.