Home and Car Audio Connect

Imagine this: You're a modern kind of audiophile, and your music library is loaded and sorted (without any compression, of course) onto a hard-disk–based audio system which is networked throughout the house. You've also got a hard-disk–based audio system in your car.

When planning a trip, you create a playlist on your home audio system and, using a wireless connection, send the tunes out to your garage and directly onto your car's hard-disk player. To get a few extra hours worth of music ready for the road, you also use a little judicious compression, which is hardly noticed in the car's listening environment.

Or how about the opposite scenario: While on the road, you come across an artist's latest release, which you promptly download (for a fee, of course) straight to your car's system while sitting in the music store's parking lot. You might even find yourself buying tunes while pumping gas or shopping for groceries. Once home, the music could be wirelessly transferred to your house system, or to a portable player.

Sound far-fetched? Not according to Delphi Automotive Systems, who plan to use the upcoming CES to demonstrate the concept. Delphi says it will be the first company to publicly demonstrate these new uses for wireless data networks. On a specially equipped vehicle, Delphi plans to show how licensed video, audio files, and other data can be transmitted between the vehicle and homes, offices, and other future "provider sources."

The company says that, in a demonstration developed with Intel Corporation, it will use the IEEE 802.11a wireless networking standard to transfer files from a home or office environment to a vehicle equipped with Delphi's entertainment electronics.

Delphi's Dave Wohleen says that his company is aggressively researching and developing products and systems that will ensure that "the day when you can fill up your gas tank and download the latest release for a long road trip isn't far off. At CES, we don't only want to show what's available to consumers today; we want to give them a glimpse of what connectivity and entertainment options are coming—soon."

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