AudioTron

The Turtle Beach AudioTron is a 1U rack-mountable, hi-fi network music player. AudioTron can stream digital music files from personal computers or NAS devices without the need to install server software on these storage devices since the Audiotron is based on Windows CE and is therefore a computer that looks like audio hardware. Supported file formats include Wave, WMA, MP3 and MP3 playlists. These files can reside on a Microsoft Windows network share or on a Samba server. AudioTron reads music files over ethernet or HPNA network, and generates analog audio via RCA connectors as well as digital audio via S/PDIF.

AudioTron can play streaming media from internet radio stations. This was supported through a free service called TurtleRadio, provided by Turtle Beach. The formats supported are Windows Media, Shoutcast and Icecast. The Windows Media support is limited to the features available before the release of Windows Media Player 10.

Users operate the AudioTron with a PC/laptop on the same network using the web interface from the build in webserver, with a remote control or on the device itself using buttons and a large "Turn & Push Selector Knob" on its front panel. The knob is used to navigate song selection menu on a two-line green LCD display. Users can select songs by turning and pushing the knob, based on various combinations of Genre, Album, Title and Artist tags. The knob also serves as volume control and playhead control while a song is being played. Standard Play, Pause, Stop, Forward and Rewind buttons can be used to control playback. An infrared remote control comes with AudioTron and can be used instead of the front panel.

AudioTron obtains IP address from DHCP server by default. It can be further configured via buttons on the front panel or from a web browser. AudioTron runs a web server which can be accessed via any standard browser. The web server also allows users to access the complete collection of songs online. Users can play songs or send them to AudioTron's play queue, without using the front panel or remote control. The Audiotron is also able to determine the type of device the web server was being accessed from, and if you were using a PDA diplays a simplified remote control screen more suitable to the smaller size of a PDA screen.

First released in 2001, AudioTron was ahead of its time in providing driverless music streaming, S/PDIF and internet radio support. However, production of this device stopped in 2004. Turtle Beach continued to support TurtleRadio for free until March 2007. After the TurtleRadio website was retired, users have to [http://support.turtlebeach.com/site/kb_ftp/114314465.asp change the configuration] of their AudioTron to use a local file to set the list of radio stations that their AudioTron can stream.

External links

* [http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/audiotron/producthome.asp Turtle Beach AudioTron website]
* [http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/audiotron/ Audiotron Discussion List]
* [http://file-ext-map.sourceforge.net/ Samba File Extension Mapping VFS Module] a Linux daemon for realtime on-the-fly conversion of flac and ogg files to an Audiotron compatible WAV stream.