"Anytime, anywhere, any media, any screen."

That idea opened the NETGEAR press conference, in which the focal point was channeling all media devices into one place. NETGEAR obviously being a company that develops networking equipment, routers and servers are an excellent angle to acheive such a feat. More specifically, NETGEAR advertised the ability to "watch any digital media on any screen at any time from any where, at home or away from home."

Drew Meyer, Director of Network Storage Products, was soon introduced to go into the necessary hardware more in depth. He opened with the NETGEAR Stora, a 1TB device server that was in the center stage of this morning's conference. Mr. Meyer then pulled out an iPhone (though any handheld platfrom could be used) with a wireless 3G connection to connect to his Stora device at home. "The Stora does three things really, really well. It's as easy as A, B, C: Access, back-up, and centralize." To show that this wasn't some pre-conditioned performance, Mr. Meyer asked a member of the press with a handheld device to connect to the device as well. Using screens on the stage, he was able to show us exactly step for step how it works, first pulling a personal picture of his grandmother from the Stora and displaying it on his phone. Pictures are only the beginning as well; browsers and even saved video files, such as the exampled Fast and Furious movie trailer.

Then, switching to a PC browser, Mr. Meyer visitied MyStora.com account to show how easily media could be managed from anywhere, including a 3-D picture wall. "This is beyond just an access platform; we're actually using it as a media player." The Stora also allows for some powerful sharing abilities, able to post a direct URL or email for others to access the media as well, including social networking sites. "That will give specific people access to specific data." He used his grandmother again as an example, a woman who will be 100 in February and not quite tech savvy. Mr. Meyer and his brother had purchased a Stora for her along witha digital picture frame, in which they can drop files from their houses and drop pictures to the photo frame that display in hers.

The television then took the spotlight, allowing connection to the network so that media on the network can be viewed and enjoyed from the TV, "bridging the gap between the TV and the network."

Chris Geiser, Project Marketing Manager of Home and Consumer Products, took the stage next to introduce some new products. Focusing on online content, and their lack of high quality vs. home televisions that are in high-definition. Mr. Geiser then showed a side by side demonstration of one standard showing of a HD display trying to show a HD clip and NETGEAR technology running the same clip, the latter obviously looking much crisper and detailed. "The challenge of playing HD video, as you know, is really maintaining a very good, broadband connection." Often that connection is unreliable, and NETGEAR has focused on curing that issue, allowing exapansion of bandwidth up to three times. using NETGEAR technology integrated into their products, there was no hindering of the 8.5MB stream, and so the video neither jumps, stalls, or gets reduced to help with load times, allowing for HD quality to be streamed to a home television. "All of these video enhansive capabilities are going to be integrated into multiple, upcoming NETGEAR multimedia and networking products."

The 'utimate networking machine' was then brought to light, the RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit router, the number one networking product of CES last year, which was running the entire demonstration. A Wireless-N HD Bridge, an industry first 4x4 MIMO 11N video screening."This kit will provide an unprecedented level of reliability of wireless preformance, including supporing full 1080p 35 Megabit HD stream in houses 3,000 square feet. This will be coming out this spring."

PowerLine took the stage next, which is the ability to use power outlets to connect devices through a network as opposed to Ethernet cables. New devices for the PowerLine introduced were the PowerLine 280 Adapter, which is up to 50% smaller than competitor devices. The 280+ adapter model features a filtered pass-through socket so the device doesn't eat up an outlet. Both these devices support high-definition streaming and other demanding applications, including online gaming.

An industry first, 5 port AV Gigabit switch, designed specifically for home use, was introduced next. The home gaming and theater swtich connects all devices together and to the Internet. "It will allow you to optimize and prioritize the performance of your Internet connection for these high demanding applications, like netwrork video, online gaming, and digital music streaming." The switch also features color-coded ports to help with prioritizing operations.

The press were left with a teaser at the end of the conference, a product unveliment for the next night with a partnership between NETGEAR and Intel, with a hint of a digital convergence product.

{aseadnetadblock|NOSHOWAD|NOSHOWAD}

Author Bio

Author: Lersar

Contributing Editor / Event Staff

Adam is a big proponent of LAN parties, esports and speed-running, and helps organize our semi-annual LAN events. He has covered hardware and software reviews of a wide variety, but most content these days come from event coverage, such as other LAN parties.