Imerge Ltd, Europe's hard disc-based media appliance technology provider, has chosen Seagate Technology as the sole supplier of hard drives for its new S1000 SoundServer, the single-room version of its award-winning, multi-room hard drive-based stereo.

The S1000 lets users conveniently organise their entire music collections and, unlike CD jukeboxes, any music track can be found and played instantly.

In the latest addition to the SoundServer range, an S1000 with an 80-Gbyte Seagate hard drive is now available in addition to the existing S1000 featuring a 40-GB capacity. Seagate's hard drive lets the S1000 record and access over 1,400 hours of music in MP3 format and play it back through conventional music systems, using standard remote controls.

The S1000 is easy to operate with a new TV interface that lets consumers record or play music - and even edit information in their music database - using a remote control from the comfort of their armchair. CDs are recorded on to the Seagate hard drive faster than real time, and the S1000 automatically connects to the Internet to give users track listing information. Music tracks can be stored and played back by album, track, artist or genre.

The SoundServer can automatically select music from a user's entire collection to fit a particular mood or style. Through software upgrades in the near future, the SoundServer will access XiVA-Net and allow the automatic search and retrieval of music-related news and information about favourite artists or music types. "XiVA-Net is the exciting new Internet-based entertainment service from Imerge.

It is dedicated to delivering entertainment to the new generation of Internet-enabled information appliances," the company observed.

"Seagate's broad set-top and consumer-appliance experience shines through as they secured this latest design win," said Richard Doherty, research director at The Envisioneering Group. "The rigorous design constraints for consumer digital audio and video media storage calls for special hard drives with unique features. Clearly, more and more consumer electronics makers are leveraging Seagate's CE design expertise, enhanced with proven industry standards, to get them to market quickly. Imerge recognised and tapped that Seagate expertise in the S1000 SoundServer."

"Seagate's leadership in the digital storage market is clear and they were the natural choice for supplying low-noise and high-reliability drives for the new generation of Consumer Electronics appliances," said Robin Courtenay, sales and marketing director at Imerge.

"Working with Imerge, we're pleased to take another big step to bring the power of Seagate hard drives and digital entertainment into Europe's living rooms," said Brian Dexheimer, Seagate executive vice president of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Customer Service. "Together with our key partners, we're committed to searching out, developing and providing the tools of the new digital living room."

Imerge said the introduction of the S1000 SoundServer illustrated the growth of storage-hungry consumer applications. "Seagate is the number one storage supplier for the CE market, and designs and integrates the technology that makes the convergence possible.

"Seagate continues its lead in developing these opportunities by providing key storage technologies end-to-end - from the consumer's living room to the biggest, fastest Internet data centres. Seagate's consumer disc drives offer the best combination of quiet operation, performance, ruggedness and value," it said.

Seagate's Consumer Electronics Testing and Engineering Center (CETEC) offers a variety of testing, integration and mechanical analysis services to help customers such as Imerge design drive-capable CE devices.

"Imerge develops next-generation media appliance technology XiVA for licensing and finished product sales. XiVA powers the next generation of hard disc-based media appliances and blends hard-disc technology, advanced software design and embedded Internet connectivity, to provide exciting new features and profitable new revenue streams," the company said.