As we’ve covered in the past, Hava is a lesser known, and generally lesser featured, competitor to Sling Media’s Slingbox. Hava has a couple of tricks the Slingbox lacks, but overall Sling is the leader. But free is free, and Monsoon is running a contest for students to win one of two Hava Wireless HDs, worth $199.99, just in time for ‘back to school’. The closing date for the contest is midnight (PST) on August 31, 2007.
It is simple to enter to the drawing. All you have to do is to submit a short essay of around 500 words on the most amazing place that you have used your HAVA or would like to use the HAVA if you win/own one.
It could be watching the American Idol Grand Finale aboard a space shuttle circling the Earth; or maybe at a far-flung rail station close to the North Pole. Just let your creativity soar. You can submit as many essays as you like, but you’ll only get one entry.
Their press release:
Aug 21, 2007 13:34 ET
Monsoon Multimedia Announces ‘Win a HAVA’
Just in Time for Back to School, Monsoon’s HAVA Lets Parents Send Kids off to College with the Comfort of Home TV
SAN MATEO, Calif., Aug. 21 /PRNewswire/ — Monsoon Multimedia, an innovative digital video solutions provider of next-generation video streaming place-shifting and time-shifting devices, today announced the ‘Win a HAVA’ drawing. By submitting a short essay on the most amazing place students would use their HAVA to view and control home TV from a PC, Windows Mobile phone or handheld computer, entrants have a chance to win a HAVA Wireless HD at http://myhava.com/win_a_hava.html.
The Monsoon HAVA provides college students access to all their favorite hometown television programming including local news, sporting events and premium cable channels. When HAVA is installed in the home, students can view their parents’ TV, digital cable, satellite or DVR from any broadband connected PC, Windows Mobile phone in their dorms or on WiFi-enabled campuses as if they were back at home sitting on the sofa with the remote control in hand. The Monsoon HAVA can also be used to stream live video messages to homesick kids using a video camera or camcorder.
“HAVA lets college students watch their home TV from anywhere in the world, from inside their dorms to anywhere on campus,” said Colin Stiles, EVP Sales & Marketing at Monsoon Multimedia. “Our customers have some great stories to tell about the types of situations and locations they have been in throughout the world and have connected to their home TV via the HAVA. We want to use the ‘Win a HAVA’ campaign to facilitate sharing of the most amazing stories and creative places that consumers have used or would use a HAVA if they won.”
The Monsoon HAVA Wireless HD enables the PC to operate as a PVR with pause, fast forward, rewind and record functions and allows TV content on the PC to be stored and burnt onto DVDs. PC users running Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows Vista can utilize the HAVA Wireless HD as a TV tuner to add full multimedia capabilities to their PCs.
Monsoon HAVA features include:
— HD Capable Component Input
— Supports Windows Vista
— Windows XP Media Center Edition integration — appears as an installed
TV-tuner card
— Connects to any TV and video source such as Cable, Satellite, DVD, TiVo
or a Camcorder
— Enables TiVo-like functionality on the PC. Users can record, store,
pause, rewind and fast forward stored video*
— Streams video wirelessly – no additional equipment or routers needed
— All inputs include a pass through connector, eliminating the use of
splitters when connecting HAVA to home video equipment
— Streams video at an average of 8Mbps directly to PCs in home network in
MPEG-2 D1, full screen at 720 x 480 pixels
— Streams MPEG-2 format over the home network, MPEG-4 format over the
Internet
— VBooster video streaming software technology developed by Monsoon
enables DVD-quality wireless video streaming and state-of-the-art
Quality of Service
— Schedule+ and record programs for later viewing
— Allows burning of stored material to DVD++
HAVA for Windows Mobile:
— Remote access to HAVA device
— Enables full remote control and channel changing capabilities of any TV
source such as Cable, Satellite, DVD or TiVo
— Supports Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition and
Smartphone
— Streams MPEG-4 video to Windows Mobile-based devices with screen
resolutions of 640×480, 320×240 and 240×240 pixels in landscape or
portrait mode
— Connections supported include WiFi, EVDO, UMTS (3G), USB Tethering and
Bluetooth connections
Pricing and Availability
The Monsoon Multimedia HAVA product line, including the HAVA Wireless HD, HAVA Platinum HD and the HAVA Gold, is available directly through Monsoon’s e-tailing division at http://www.myhava.com/. The Monsoon Multimedia HAVA Gold and HAVA Platinum HD are available through Fry’s Electronics, TigerDirect.com and other select retailers nationwide.
For more information on how to ‘Win a HAVA’, please visit http://www.myhava.com/win_a_hava.html.
About Monsoon Multimedia
Monsoon Multimedia provides advanced, standards based multimedia products and technologies for the PC and Consumer Electronics industries. Monsoon licenses highly optimized multimedia solutions comprising applications, drivers, frameworks, middleware and reference designs. Our customers and partners are semiconductor companies, PC manufacturers, software suppliers and consumer electronics companies. Founded by the founders of Dazzle and Emuzed, the company is headquartered in Noida, India with offices in California and Russia. For more information, please visit http://www.monsoonmultimedia.com/.
* TiVo-like functionality available only with HAVA Wireless HD
+ Schedule is available only using MCE
++ DVD burning of stored material available only with HAVA Wireless HD and
HAVA Platinum HD.
Media Contact:
Anders Steele
FortyThree, Inc.
831.239.0960
anders@fortythreepr.com
Source: Monsoon Multimedia
CONTACT: Anders Steele of FortyThree, Inc., +1-831-239-0960,
anders@fortythreepr.com, for Monsoon Multimedia
Web site: http://www.monsoonmultimedia.com/
http://www.myhava.com/
