It was thought that the ONLY ways to enjoy quality music throughout your home was to either pre-wire your newly-built “McMansion” with miles of audio cable, install in-wall or in-ceiling speakers and connect it all to a CD changer or FM tuner in the basement; OR pay someone to come out and retrofit your 50-year old home with all the above equipment (which costs more). Oh, there is also the old-fashioned way: Buy two powered tower speakers, hook them up to a beefy amp/receiver AND JUST CRANK IT!

Well there is another option – Wireless! Now don’t get me wrong (and let me ease the anger of audiophiles everywhere), connecting all of your audio equipment directly (wired) is still going to provide you with the best sound quality and if done right, will ensure the lowest amount of signal interference. But as technology advances, newer ways to do the same ol’ same ol’ will advance as well.

The Lowdown:

Enter Sonos, a multi-room audio system built around wirelessly sending audio signals to different components around your home without the complicated and costly process of your typical wired multi-room audio distribution system.

Sonos claims that it’s system will provide the user:

“- Wireless that works like magic
- A multi-room system that’s flawless, flexible and fun.
- Instant access to endless music.
- Setup that’s out-of-the-box simple.“

They way they accompish this is by:

1. Connecting a ZoneBridge or ZonePlayer to your broadband router

2. Placing additional ZonePlayers in all the rooms where you want music, either by connecting said players to existing audio equipment (A/V receiver and/or powered speakers). Or adding players that include amplification and sound output.

3. Once the ZonePlayers are in place, you can control the players and your music collection by either the Sonos PC or Mac program, a Sonos portable controller, or by dowloading an app that will convert your iPhone or iPod Touch into a Sonos Player (Yes, you can control your multi-room audio system with your iPhone).

You can also listen to Internet radio (free or fee) and other online music services like Rhapsody, Napster & Pandora.

“You don’t need to be a tech genius or a wireless expert. You don’t have to break through walls or hire someone to re-wire your house. And you don’t need to know what hex keys and SSID are. All you need is a high-speed Internet connection, a router and two fingers so you can push the buttons on every ZonePlayer. When you want to expand, just add more ZonePlayers and Controllers and get those fingers ready.”

Prices for the ZoneBridge and ZonePlayers start at about $100 bucks, the Sonos Controller is $350 (iPhone or iPod Touch app is free) and the Sonos program for Mac or PC is free as well. They also have bundles they suggest as a simple way to get all you need with one purchase.

For all you audiophiles that contest enjoying your music collection via a series of complex audio connections is the ONLY way to do it…do yo’ thang. For everybody else who just wants some music in the kitchen while they cook, Sonos may be an ideal alternative.

*cough*Since I did such a nice writeup, maybe Sonos will send me some products to review*cough*

If you think Google is “Big Brother in Training” now, wait till you hear about it’s new pet project: Google PowerMeter. I just used that big brother line to stir up enough emotion to keep your attention throughout my article (hope it works)

The Lowdown:

“Google PowerMeter is a project of Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, which aspires to leverage the power of information and technology to address global challenges.”

What Google wants to achieve with this new endeavor is to get people to watch their home energy consumption in real time in hopes that folks will take a more conscious effort to cut their energy usage. PowerMeter’s three-prong plan is to:

Access
See your electricity use from any Google Powermeter enabled device.

Learn
Understand more about how you use electricity throughout the day.

Save
Reduce your electricity use and lower your monthly bills.

The way it works is your utility company has to be a PowerMeter partner, then you have to purchase a PowerMeter-enabled device. Then you can monitor your home energy comsumption in real time using Google PowerMeter similar to how you would check your email using Google Mail.

Right now, Google PowerMeter is in it’s infant stage and is currently available mostly in the UK. There are only a couple of utility companies in the US that participate (Cali and Florida), so don’t think you can just run out and within a couple of days, see how much energy your dishwasher consumes with your Google Nexus One Phone (see how I linked it all together). But as more people sign on to the whole “How much money in energy am I throwing away” thought process, Google will surely be out in front, once again.

If I were a betting man (I can’t stand to lose any more than $25 dollars, so clearly I am NOT), I would say that Smart Homes will be all the rage in the US during this decade. Google PowerMeter will be another way to intergrate/upgrade technology in your home to give you more control, while making living more enjoyable and energy efficient = win/win!

Since I will not be attending CES this year (can’t say that enough) I will still scour the interwebs to feed my hunger for the latest and greatest the show has to offer. But there are several technologies that I will really be on the lookout for. Here is my list and why

The Lowdown:

3D TV
Over the holidays, I (and a ba-jillion other people) dropped some serious dough to watch the movie “Avatar”…and it didn’t disappoint either! I specifically searched out an IMAX 3D Experience just to see how good the movie would look in 3D…and it didn’t disappoint either! But my question is? Can TV’s and other components reproduce that same 3D experience at home? And how much will the average consumer have to shell out to take advantage? There are already some TV’s on the market that claim to be “3D Ready”…but are they really? Hopefully CES can shed some light on my skepticism curiosity.

TV over the internet or IPTV
I am almost positive more and more people are thinking about calling their cable/satellite provider and telling them to “kick rocks”. But they feel that in order to get decent programming, they are trapped under the thumb of these TV giants. I predict that the battle between Cable/Satellite TV and IPTV will be the next “format war” of this decade (I know they are not formats – I just couldn’t come up with anything clever). What I want to find out from CES is are the current and upcoming players in IPTV serious enough to take it to the TV gods.

Home Automation
I just love this technology. The mere idea that my house can shoot me an email when my wife gets home; I can monitor my security cameras, turn my heat up or down, or set my DVR to record Oprah on my smartphone; control ALL of my electronics (including my oven, fridge, security, and HVAC) with one remote unit gets me going. I want to know how simple in cheap, or how difficult and costly it will be for the average consumer to convert their house into a “Smart Home”

So there are my questions CES MUST answer. What are yours?