ReQuest’s Next Generation Server Software Automatically Synchronizes with iTunes®

Posted by Nicoll Publi... on Thursday, October 05, 2006 - 03:36 pm:

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Ballston Spa, New York - July 27, 2006—ReQuest, the leader in digital multimedia management for the residential and commercial custom install markets, today announced the release of the highly anticipated version 3.0 software update for their multi-award winning family of digital audio music servers. An accumulation of over six years of customer and dealer feedback, the latest operating system update is for all S.Series, F.Series, N.Series, ARQIVE, and previous AudioReQuest models. New features include an automatic music and playlist synchronization between AudioReQuest and Apple’s iTunes®, two-way multi-home synchronization between AudioReQuest servers over the Internet with NetSync™ 2.0, Automatic Dual Encoding (ADE) for streaming and portables, and a brand new drag and drop touch screen user interface.

“With the popularity of the Apple iPod®, our customers requested a seamless way to transfer music from their AudioReQuest whole house music systems to their iPods® and make playlists in iTunes® that would instantly be available in any room in their house,” says John Reine co-founder of ReQuest. “The result of version 3.0 is the power to take your entire music collection with you anywhere you go; in another room in the house, in the car, while you travel with your iPod®, at work streaming over the Internet, or at your second home with another AudioReQuest system using NetSync™.”

AudioReQuest v.3.0 is user-installable via an online update at no cost to owners or dealer/installers. The new version works with a new downloadable “NetSync™ for iTunes®” plug-in for Windows that automatically locates the AudioReQuest music server on the home network and transfers music, playlists, and edits in music metadata to the AudioReQuest. In addition, new media and playlists on the AudioReQuest will be available to the iTunes® library and ready for automatic synchronization to the iPod®. Version 3.0 also sports a new feature called Automatic Dual Encoding (ADE) that automatically makes two copies of each song, one in a higher bitrate and one in a lower bitrate . This allows AudioReQuest owners to listen to higher quality lossless WAV and FLAC music on their whole house audio systems, while making their entire collection available in 192 kbps MP3 to transfer to iPods® as well as streaming over the Internet with the newly updated AudioReQuest web server.

Another highly anticipated feature is NetSync 2.0, which adds additional intelligence and two-way synchronization between multiple AudioReQuest music servers in the home and over the Internet. In addition to allowing customers to scale up the number of discrete independent zones per house, customers can also synchronize their entire collection between multiple homes. When new CDs are ripped in either location, the music is automatically added to every AudioReQuest music server connected to the Internet..

A powerful new feature is an updated touch screen interface which adds drag-and-drop capabilities for easy playlist creation, AlbumArt browsing, and advanced searching. With the new intuitive user interface layout, an affordable touch screen from ReQuest can be added, providing fully interactive full screen control interface. The new interface is also accessible from any PC, Mac, and web pad using the built-in web server control.

Additional features include:
*Metadata lookup with All Music Guides extensive database.
*Updated Web Server user interface
*Expanded Health and Remote Diagnostics over ARQLink
*Significant performance improvements

About ReQuest
ReQuest Inc.’s manufacturing, engineering, testing, and office facilities are located in
Ballston Spa, New York. The company’s home-entertainment systems have set the standard for high-end digital media storage, management, playback, and system integration since 1998. ReQuest’s award-winning music servers and video-management systems are the accepted leaders in cutting-edge technology. The company enjoys being regarded as having the best service in the industry, with an installed base of more than 18,000 units. Recently, ReQuest was ranked by Inc. magazine as one of the top 500 fastest-growing private businesses in America for the second year in a row.