Roku Unveils New Award-Winning Network Music Players

Jan. 2004 – Delivering on its promise to make digital media more enjoyable in all areas of the home, Roku introduced its second product line today – Roku SoundBridge network music players. The new Roku SoundBridge M1000 and M2000 products won 2004 CES Innovations Awards for excellence in design and engineering in the audio category. Now with Roku SoundBridge, consumers can listen to digital music that's stored on their computers, in any room of their homes, whether from the comfort of the couch or the convenience of the kitchen.

Roku SoundBridge integrates easily into any home computer network, either through a Wi-Fi adapter or built-in Ethernet so that customers can listen to music, from their computers, on dedicated speakers or though any stereo system. Roku SoundBridge can access playlists from both Mac- and Windows-based computers, and supports more digital music than most network music players, by streaming music in MP3, WMA, AAC, AIFF and WAV formats. Roku SoundBridge has a bright vacuum florescent display (VFD) and a remote control so consumers can browse and select music by artist, title, album, or genre from across the room.

“Roku SoundBridge is the best network music player on the market. It supports a wide variety of music formats, is easy to use, and has a huge display that can be read from across the room,” said Anthony Wood, Roku founder and CEO. “We are proud to give consumers innovative products that exceed their expectations for today's networked digital home.”

Roku SoundBridge works seamlessly with Apple digital home entertainment technologies such as AAC, an audio file format used by iTunes 4 software jukebox. Roku SoundBridge is one of the first network music players to play music saved in AAC and parse native iTunes playlists, enabling Roku customers to stream iTunes music located on both Mac- and Windows-based computers. In addition, Roku SoundBridge supports Rendezvous, Apple's networking software that connects computers and devices automatically so that Mac users can easily network to their Roku products.

Roku SoundBridge network music players are so sleek (M1000 is 10 inches wide x 2.37 inches in diameter and M2000 is 17 inches wide x 2.75 inches in diameter) and stylish that they can fit in any bookcase or AV stack, and can even be mounted on a wall or under a cabinet.

Pricing and Availability
Roku SoundBridge M2000 will sell for $499.99 and Roku SoundBridge M1000 will have an introductory price of $249.99. Roku SoundBridge can be ordered from www.rokulabs.com and is expected to ship as early as February. Those who order a Roku SoundBridge before March 1 will receive a 10 percent discount, either $50 or $25, respectively. Roku SoundBridge will be in consumer electronics stores nationwide beginning in March.

SOURCE Roku