Wireless set-top box on the way

Adelaide-based Zensonic - a spin-off from distributor PC Range - is gearing up to market an Australian-designed wireless home media player to the world.

The company - which was founded by PC Range boss Raaj Menon and his China-based business partner - will ship around 2000 units of the Z400 from Taiwan in the first week of August for sale to the reseller channel in Australia.

The Z400 is a $369 (RRP) set-top box that lets users play back movie files stored on their PC directly to their TV using an 802.11g wireless link.

The box - which ships with a remote control - can play DiVX movies and MP3 audio, and display JPEG pictures directly to a TV and stereo system.

Zensonic also had plans to market the product in the US and Europe following the local launch, Menon said.

'We're going to market it worldwide. Australia will be the first to get it - I think it will do well,' he said.

The concept began in Australia four months ago when Menon contracted a team of 10 engineers in Taiwan to design the firmware for the box.

The casing is manufactured in China and the box runs a mainboard manufactured in the US by Sigma Design and an ARM 7, 32-bit RISC microprocessor.

The Z400 follows the launch of the company's $159 Z300 home theatre media player which supports CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, DVD, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW formats. On launch two months ago, Menon claimed Zensonic sold 1000 units of the Australian-designed Z300 in the first three days.

By the end of the year, PC Range would have invested several hundred thousand dollars promoting products that fit squarely into the home theatre and convergence markets.

'We created the Z400 to serve the huge demand from users for a solution that ties their digital content stored on their PC to their home theatre system,' he said.

'Home networks are now enormously popular, and the in-built 802.11g wireless networking of the Z400 eliminates the need to have ugly cables running into your lounge room,' he said.

Menon claimed the reseller channel would buy the unit for less than $300 and make at least 20 points on the sale.

The box connects at 'more than twice the speed' of older-style 802.11b WiFi connections found in some competing network media players, Menon claimed.