Roundtable Discussion With the Media Center Integrator Alliance

At CEDIA EXPO 2008, the Media Center Integrator Alliance (MCIA) was launched by some of the most influential brands in the custom installation channel.

CustomRetailer recently discussed the brief past, busy present and long future of MCIA with three of its founding members: MCIA Chairman Kevin Collins, Director of the Custom Installer Channel, Microsoft; MCIA Vice Chairman Brian Paper, Vice President, Operations and Co-Founder, Niveus Media; and Greg Schlechter, Platform Marketing Manager in the Consumer PC Group for Intel.

What is MCIA?
Schlechter: MCIA is an open, independent, non-profit industry organization formed to drive adoption and awareness of the Media Center ecosystem in the custom integration channel. MCIA establishes a central, unified voice and forum for the Media Center ecosystem.

Explain this concept of a Media Center “ecosystem.”
Paper: It includes a wide range of Media Center products, companies and integrators. None of them exist in a vacuum; they all relate, even if right now many of them don’t actively relate. MCIA is here to facilitate and establish these relationships in order to share information, best practices and a lot more.

Products in the Media Center ecosystem include powerful, energy-efficient GPUs and CPUs, digital tuners, high-speed networking, media servers, extenders for Windows Media Center devices, mobile Internet devices, high-definition digital content, A/V gear, security devices, PCs, thermostats and lighting control. MCIA’s message is that by assembling the right Media Center products and applications, integrators can fully serve the entertainment and automation needs of any residential or commercial installation.

How did MCIA come about?
Collins: Although Media Center had been making an increasing impact in the custom channel for several years, there never was a rallying point in the CEDIA world for the whole Media Center community to come together and interact. With the establishment of MCIA, now there is.

Who are the members of MCIA?
Collins: The founding members of MCIA are AMD, Crestron, HP, Intel, Life|ware, Microsoft and Niveus Media. However, this is by no means a manufacturer-focused consortium. These companies started MCIA with the intention of attracting widespread integrator membership.

What is the need for this Alliance?
Paper: As Kevin mentioned, the Media Center community lacked a common meeting place, particularly for the purposes of sharing design, installation and marketing best practices as well as developing and administering certification, training and education. As MCIA members, we truly believe that the capabilities of the companies who support Media Center technologies are greater when combined. MCIA will pool vital resources and ideas, guided by the common goals of nurturing, developing and expanding the Media Center ecosystem.

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