In stores now, Rocketboost announcement makes the rounds on the 'net.
Friday, October 23, 2009 at 8:10PM 
The new line of RocketBoost-enabled products hits brick and mortar stores this week. Best Buy issued their press release full of executive quotes and the usual light-on-details value props. Crunchgear, Engadget, I4U, and others dropped their cursory mentions that, perhaps not surprisingly, didn't offer much more detail.
A few points worth clarifying for those totally unfamiliar with Best Buy brands, and their wireless efforts:
- Rocketfish is a Best Buy "exclusive brand" (aka private label). Their products are sold in Best Buy, Canada's Future Shop, as well as a few chains in the UK and East Asia.
- Rocketboost is a brandname from Best Buy, signifying the use of a new wireless audio solution, which readers of this site know is the 2nd generation solution made by Portland, OR-based wireless audio semiconductor firm, Avnera. The Avnera solution includes a protocol and API layer, called AAL (for Avnera Audio Link) which ensure devices seamlessly interoperate with one another.
- Rocketboost is not built with the same wireless solution as their RF-WHTIB kit. That was based on Avnera's first gen, stereo-only, point-to-point-only system. Rocketboost is a much more capable, and sophisticated audio "networking" system.
- Rocketboost is open to other makers, so consumers can expect to see devices from other brands that can work with one another – sending low-delay, high-fidelity audio all around the house. Best Buy is banking on their retail floor dominance to offer such a solution to help consumers roll their own network, and in doing so, can compel other brands to support the standard that Best Buy has made its own investment in, and will continue to champion.
As early comments on the blogs indicate, perhaps Rocketboost's values are not apparent in the early going... or maybe it's seen as a bit too niche and utilitarian by the journalists to get the masses excited. Regardless, the folks who are looking for a wireless audio solution that marries legacy equipment with new technologies can read the coverage posted here a couple weeks ago upon the products' dotcom launch.
Hopefully it will give would-be buyers the extra insight needed to figure out how these products can work in their homes.
