We Got Served

On the heels of our update about the Media Center University recordings comes another example of Microsoft’s interest in courting professional consumer electronics installers.  CEDIA Expo is the annual trade show presented by the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association.  Our friends on the Windows Home Server team had let us know last week that they would be at CEDIA Expo 2008 in Denver in September, but didn’t have many details at that point.

Ian Dixon however noted that CEPro has run a story describing Microsoft’s plans for CEDIA Expo 2008.  Microsoft plans on holding six presentations spread over the four days of the conference training CE professionals how to configure and use Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server in custom installations.

Microsoft CEDIA Training Schedule

Date/Time

Session

Location

• Sept. 4 (4-5:30 p.m.)

  Intro to WMC in Custom Installations

  Hyatt – Capitol 7

• Sept. 5 (12-1:30 p.m.)

  Setup and Configuration of Digital Cable TV Tuners for WMC

  Hilton Garden Inn – Platinum

• Sept. 6 (10-11:30 a.m.)

  Intro to WMC in Custom Installations

  Hyatt – Capitol 3

• Sept. 6 (2-3:30 p.m.)

  Setup and Configuration of Windows Home Server

  Convention Center – 608

• Sept. 6 (4-5:30 p.m.)

  Setup and Configuration of Digital Cable TV Tuners for WMC

  Hyatt – Capitol 3

• Sept. 7 (10-11:30 a.m.)

  Adding Value to WMC With Windows Home Server, Extender and Zune

  Convention Center – 505

This is an exciting opportunity for Windows Home Server as this will be the first time it has been presented at CEDIA.  It is also interesting to note that not only are WMC, which should already be familiar to many of the attendees at CEDIA Expo 2008, and WHS being shown separately, but that Microsoft also plans to show how these two products fit together.

We will keep you up to date as we hear more details about what Microsoft plans on showing and the specific hardware that the CE pros will get to see in action.  We will also be keeping an eye out for Microsoft to post the PowerPoint presentations for CEDIA Expo 2008 as they did for CEDIA Expo 2007.

As if having Microsoft showing off WHS and WMC together wasn’t enough, Microsoft will also be using CEDIA to announce the winner of the Windows Media Center Ultimate Install Contest.

Finally, it is also worth noting that Microsoft will not be alone showing off Windows Media Center at CEDIA.  Niveus will also be at CEDIA offering training on how to deploy their own WMC-based media servers and design whole-home systems around WMC.