-->
Save your FREE seat for Streaming Media Connect in November. Register Now!

Blackfire RED Aims to Save Consumers From 'Entertainment Islands'

Article Featured Image

Blackfire Research takes the wraps off Blackfire RED today, a distribution framework designed to make device-to-device streaming within the home easy and ubiquitous. RED stands for "real-time entertainment distribution," and the company says it will prevent consumer's entertainment choices from being confined to their own private islands. With RED-enabled speakers, for example, consumers can create multi-room streaming audio systems that are perfectly in synch using speakers from a variety of manufacturers. Or, with a RED-enabled TV they could stream high-resolution video from a set linked to an online subscription service to another in the home that isn't.

RED can stream 5.1 audio and 4K video, and is sophisticated enough to strip out a video's audio channel and send it to RED-enabled speakers. The framework includes three parts: a software engine built into consumer electronics devices, a communications protocol that can work around interference, and a programming interface for real-time distribution. Blackfire is leaving mobile app creation up to its partner CE companies; there won't be one master RED app that controls all of a home's devices. Instead, each partner will create their own app.

The first RED-enabled devices will debut this month and are all audio-related. The company says there will be roughly 90 product lines shipping by the end of the year, including products from Harman Kardon, Onkyo, Pioneer, and Integra. Shoppers will see a RED logo on the packaging of supported products. RED-enabled TVs should hit the market next year.

Streaming Covers
Free
for qualified subscribers
Subscribe Now Current Issue Past Issues
Related Articles

Vudu and UltraViolet Let Members Share Movies with 5 Friends

UltraViolet becomes a little less restrictive thanks to a Vudu feature that lets members share the contents of their online libraries.