Launched On Kickstarter, Musaic Promises Hi-Fi Music And Home Automation

Compact wireless HiFi systems are pretty common these days, but what is less common is startups thinking more deeply about how the same systems could move into home automation and the Internet of Things. That’s the implication behind a new system launched by device startup Musaic, recently launched on Kickstarter.

It now plans to go up against much bigger audio-based companies, such as Bose. It’s speakers system is, to some extend, a Trojan Horse for it’s IoT platform.

Musaic is a new kind of HiFi system made up of wireless speakers, which also cleverly extends into home automation, and is able to deliver high quality 24 Bit content over not just Bluetooth but also Wifi.

It works over WiFi and Bluetooth (many systems are just one or the other) to play music from many different smartphones, Mac or PC, and streaming services such as Grooveshark, Aupeo, Rhapsody, Napster, SomaFM, Murfie, TuneIn and many online radio stations.

On the music side, with more than one speaker, several people in a house can play different music through different players at the same time or the same music through multiple players in sync.

Additionally, as music streaming services become more pervasive, competitors in the market like Sonos are offering integration with services such as Spotify. These systems generally plug into the Spotify API. However, this means you get only what the Spotify API can deliver to third parties. It’s not possible to create a playlist for instance on such third party services. Instead, Musaic has built an API allowing the ability to use native apps.

But it’s the IoT realm that Musaic has its eyes on, with its system able to be associated with connect e lighting systems and other home automation devices.

It’s already joined the industry association called the AllSeen Alliance, run by the Linux Foundation, alongside others such as Qualcomm, HTC, AT&T and many others. It can already control dimmers, bulbs and switches from the lighting brand LightwaveRF. And it’s working closely with LIFX and WigWag (both Kickstarter successes) on integrating their products.

The company was started in May 2013 by a team comprising of experienced audio industry people draw from the Cambridge UK high tech cluster.