Entertainment 2.0

For the third year straight, Microsoft has opened the Windows Media Center Ultimate Home Installation contest for custom integrators.  The deadline for entries this year is August 1st and custom installers are able to submit two entries.  Microsoft will announce the winner at CEDIA 2009 in Atlanta, GA.

The winner will receive the following:

• A trip to CEDIA Expo 2009 in Atlanta
• A trip (with a guest) to Microsoft headquarters, including airfare, two-night hotel accommodations, a campus tour, and a $1,000 cash prize
• Niveus Media Server – Rainier Edition HD complete system with Intel processor and motherboard
• 160GB Intel X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive
• Autonomic Media Control Server EX with PolyTune
• A photo shoot of the winning installation

As well, the customer who had the system installed will win the following:

• Xbox 360 Elite system with four wireless controllers
• Xbox 360 Media Remote
• Four games for Xbox 360
• One-year Xbox LIVE subscription
• Two Zune digital media players (8GB and 120GB) with a home audiovisual kit

If I thought I could afford a custom installation I might go for one, but it’ll be interesting to see what the custom installer side of the community comes up with for the contest.

Full contest details can be found here.

Prize info posted at CEPro.

Microsoft is teaming up with the Media Center Integrator Alliance to allow CE Pros a chance to influence Media Center in Windows 7.  CE Pro.com is reporting that if integrators sign up before February 6th, they can be included in a special private beta that will allow them to have a direct influence on the product.

From the article:

"This is an entirely different program than the public Windows 7 beta," says a Microsoft spokesperson. "Inclusion in this private beta will allow Microsoft to provide an additional level of scrutiny to the particular issues that you are seeing that are related to the custom installation channel."

In other words, your opinion will matter.

Ordinarily Microsoft, like other mass-market product developers, prioritizes bug and feature requests by the sheer volume of mentions by the beta testers.
You can imagine that general OS issues will dominate the request list, much more so than Windows Media Center.

Integrators who really care about Media Center will get their opinions heard, according to Microsoft and the MCIA. That is no guarantee that your wish lists will be adopted in the final product, but the Media Center team will try its darndest.

MCIA members log their reports into a tracking system that identifies them as MCIA participants, and Microsoft will consider separately the "unique needs that a general Windows 7 Media Center customer would not experience," according to the company.
The MCIA recognizes that "installers design complex Media Center solutions," says Kevin Collins, chairman of MCIA and director of the custom installer channel in the Connected TV, Entertainment and Devices division at Microsoft.

If you’re a custom installer, get in there and get the word out.  MS seems more apt to listen to the people who work with Media Center as opposed to us who are just hobbyists, as it should be.

MCIA is also sponsoring the two day “Media Center University” at EHX in Orlando Florida in March.  I’d love to make it to this show.  Any sponsors?