BIOS: Technology Means Business

This is slick! Olive Media Products has unveiled a wireless digital Hi-Fi component that promises premium audio with the latest convergence technology. The Symphony is based on the popular idea of a central device that stores, manages and wirelessly distributes digital music throughout the home, but goes a new way with regard to its hardware and user interface concept.

Engineered as a 'true' Hi-Fi component, the Symphony features the proprietary Digital Pure Audio (DPA) technology that should deliver the high fidelity sound an audiophile craves. It's also the first device of its type to come with Playlist, a software that lets you catalogue and compile music. The device costs $899 and includes the free Preload service - the ripping of your music onto the device before it ships.

'The wide acceptance of digital music has spurred the availability of solutions that allow users to enjoy music away from the PC', said Oliver Bergmann, Chief Executive Officer and President of Olive Media Products. 'However, the quality limitations of lossy audio formats and problematic integration of convergence technology have made those solutions unacceptable for music aficionados. Olive enters the market from the perspective of a true audiophile, eliminating the PC experience entirely.'

The Symphony is powered by an IBM PowerPC 32-bit processor which handles the endecoding and decoding of multiple audio streams. It supports uncompressed audio formats (AIFF, WAV) or lossless compression (FLAC) and offer S/PDIF optical and TOSLINK coax connectivity ports.

A relatively low power consumption (7-Watts in Play mode) also means the device can operate without a noisy fan. Audio is stored on a built-in 80GB (2.5in.) Hard disk drive, which should hold up to 20,000 songs.

Other key features include a widescreen LCD, two-level jog-wheel for operating the device, integrated networking capabilities (wireless 802.11g access point or 10/100 Ethernet 4-port-switch), and access to a free online encyclopaedia that gives you access to detailed information about composers, their works and more.