What do you get when you cross a media server and Internet storage with synchronization and home control? The Autonomic Mirage Media Server (MMS) from S1Digital.

The product builds on Autonomic’s Media Control System (MCS) technology, which merges multistream iTunes, Windows Media and Internet radio into a whole-house system that can be controlled by AMX, Crestron, RTI, URC and NuVo keypads and touchscreens.

“To that we added cloud awareness and began to realize that we have a new category of device,” Autonomic co-founder Michael de Nigris tells CE Pro.

The MMS, which has a 1 TB hard drive, automatically copies a user’s content to a secure, online digital locker where it can be accessed and shared with an iPhone, iPad, computer, TiVo, Wii, PlayStation, Xbox or other streaming device.

Audio files also can be uploaded to the cloud from iTunes or other Internet sources.

The software, running XP Embedded, then enables multiple MMS devices to sync over the Internet.

“If you have a second home, just plug in a second Mirage server, give it an Internet connection, and within minutes your entire library is available to listen to, even if it’s hundreds of gigabytes,” de Nigris says.

The server catalogs the library titles from the cloud within seconds “then begins to trickle the content down to its local hard drive,” he says.

But who can wait for that, when you plug your shiny new MMS into your second home?

de Nigris says not to worry: “If a song is requested for playback before it’s been downloaded, Mirage will begin streaming the content while it simultaneously stores it to the hard drive.”

Plus, the MMS can stream content from a number of online sources such as Sirius/XM, Pandora and Internet radio. de Nigris says that other services such as LastFM and Spotify are planned in future firmware upgrades.

The five-source digital media server includes a video player with digital 7.1 audio and four independent analog stereo audio players for audio distribution. It supports iTunes, Windows Media, FLAC, WAV and other popular formats. Software is available for Macs and PCs to automatically keep iTunes and Media Player libraries synchronized with the server and online storage.

It’s All About Control

Synchronization is a nice feature. So is cloud-based access. But the secret is in the control – which is Autonomic’s last name.

Designed specifically for custom integrators, the MMS has two-way control modules for some of the most popular home automation systems including AMX, Crestron, Home Automation Inc. (HAI), Remote Technologies Inc. (RTI) and URC (formerly Universal Remote Control).

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Julie Jacobson - Editor-at-large, CE Pro

Julie Jacobson is co-founder of EH Publishing and currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro, mostly in the areas of home automation, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. She majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. Julie is a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player with the scars to prove it. Follow her on Twitter @juliejacobson.