Sony updates the Airboard for Martin Luther King, Jr. Portable AV / Sony Posted by zmcnulty on Jan 19, 2004 - 09:01 AM |
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Just kidding. Sony and Sony Marketing will begin selling the wireless LCD television "Airboard LF-X1" beginning March 12th. The Airboard includes support for wireless LAN access IEEE 802.11a/b/g standards. While it's officially Open Price, indicators suggest it should cost around 148,000 yen. The product is composed of two parts: the base station and the 12.1 inch TFT LCD monitor. It can also change between a 5GHz IEEE 802.11a signal and 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11b/g signal. The base station, apart from providing AV functions such as television and DVD playing, HDD recorder, etc. and forwarding them to the LCD monitor, also acts as an internet conduit for access to email and internet functions via the LCD screen. The Airboard also supports a smaller television window while using the internet, ala Picture-in-Picture, and image capturing.  [1]The most notable new function is the capability to connect to one's own base station via the internet and the included "NetAV" function. The video is forwarded to the Airboard LCD via the MPEG-4 format, for which Sony recommends a connection speed of at least 400kbps. Also, in order to connect to the base station from outside the network, the base station must be connected to a router that supports Dynamic DNS services. The interfaces on the base station are 10Base-T/100Base-TX 1x, USB 1.1 2x, TV input and other various video inputs, and a printer can be connected to the USB port. The LCD monitor itself has 10Base-T/100Base-TX 1x, USB 1.1 2x, Memory Stick slot 1x, and a headphone port. The external dimensions of the base station are 58 x 180 x 222mm (W x D x H) and weighs 550g. The LCD monitor is 365 x 31 x 240mm (W x D x H) and with the battery weighs 2.4kg. The battery charge supposedly lasts 2-3 hours. At the presentation event, the Executive Director of Business Performance Shin Noshinoya talked about the future of the realm of wireless television. He said, "With the explosive diffusion of HDD recorders last year, in conjunction with the Airboard, users can now enjoy much more convenience and entertainment." Mr. Noshinoya also commented that, much along the same lines that people cheerfully send images taken with their camera phones to their friends, "we would like to offer users the opportunity to more enjoyment with video and audio through use of the Airboard." He finally said "The Airboard is being put in place as the first product that has new 'video culture' and will become a communication tool." At the announcement event, the question of whether or not Airboard users would face any copyright issues came up. Regarding this, Sony has said that the base station and LCD monitor have a 1 to 1 certified relationship, and the transmission protocols used are encryption systems developed independently by Sony. They also said that since the Airboard itself does not have any "record once" capabilities, then there would be no problem. Inspired by: http://internet.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/news/2004/01/19/1788.html [2] News Release: http://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200401/04-0119/ [3] |
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This article is from TechJapan http://www.techjapan.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.techjapan.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=88 Links in this article [1] http://www.techjapan.com/images/0104/011904/lfx1.jpg [2] http://internet.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/news/2004/01/19/1788.html [3] http://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200401/04-0119/ |
