Digital Trends

Sondigo Sirocco June 27th, 2006 | by Ian Bell

Features and Design

There are many terms that describe products that transport media from a PC to another source like a home theater system. You have Media Center PCs, Home Theater PCs (often the same as a Media Center PC), Media Streamers, and Audio Bridges. A Media Center PC often needs to be located relatively close to the home theater system since you are streaming both video and audio in most instances; they can also cost up to a few thousand dollars or more — a considerable investment. Media Streamers essentially take the media from a source such as your PC and then broadcasts it either wirelessly or through an Ethernet connection — it is pulling the content. Then a media streamer will re-encode that source and output it to your home theater. The problem with this setup is that many companies need to overcome the issues that DRM protected material present. The Sonos audio system for example states that it supports Real Rhapsody and Apple iTunes, but it will not support Apple, Real or Microsoft DRM-encrypted and WMA lossless formats. So what are you supposed to do with that iTunes library of yours sitting on that PC? This is where an Audio Bridge comes in handy. An Audio Bridge is essentially an extension of your PCs soundcard; it will play whatever is coming through your soundcard be it a music song, movie, or videogame. By doing so, the Sirocco for example, can play protected DRM audio, as long as your PC plays it. We will explain how this works more in detail under the Setup and Use sections.

Sondigo ships the Sirocco with an A/C adapter, digital optical cable, a line-in to RCA cable, Ethernet cable, software and quick start guide. The digital optical cable is really brittle and of low quality, so we recommend that you pick up a nicer one if this is important to you. The Sirocco unit comes in an ugly beige color which reminds us of computer equipment from the 80's. The good thing is that the unit is pretty small, so you should be able to hide it behind your home theater equipment. There are 7 LED's located on the top of the unit: Wireless, LAN, Audio, 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital, Reset, and Power. Each LED will light-up with that particular feature is being used.

The back of the unit has you're A/C adapter connector, a jack used for either headphones or the included RCA cable, surround and center/sub connectors, digital out, Ethernet connector and the Wi-Fi Antenna. There are rubber feet and mounting holes on the bottom. The unit is pretty small measuring in at 1”T x 6” W x 4”L.

Feature-wise the Sirocco does not do a whole lot of things but it does not necessarily need to. It does support Dolby Digital audio and can turn regular two-channel audio into a simulated 5.1 surround sound output.  You can either use the 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connection or the Ethernet port.

Image Courtesy of Sondigo