Two Decades With Kaleidescape

The luxury video business is hard. Don’t believe me? Consider companies like Pioneer, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Runco, Escient, and ReQuest. And those are just a few brands that have either exited that market or no longer exist.

- By John Sciacca

One company that has consistently delivered the highest quality home theater experience since its inception 20 years ago is Kaleidescape. From day one, the movie server pioneer pushed the technology envelope via its “Kaleidescape experience.” Nearly every photo you’ll see of a luxury home theater system will feature Kaleidescape’s iconic grid-like cover art display. If you experience a high-end A/V manufacturer’s theater demo at a tradeshow, the source driving the system is likely to be a Kaleidescape.

I have a unique relationship with the company having covered it from almost the start. I’ve had my hands on nearly every Kaleidescape component and am fortunate to have a system in my own theater.

The first time I heard about Kaleidescape was at the CEDIA Expo in 2003. Another integrator mentioned he was starting to install Gigabitcapable networking hardware to ensure Kaleidescape would be supported in the future. (The company’s products gained Gigabit Ethernet in 2005.)

How do you make a splash in an industry filled with black boxes? Make your box a shiny white one that can’t help but stand out. Everything about the first Kaleidescape system was different, and at a time when the digital music library concept was just emerging (Apple announced iTunes in early 2001), the company was on a similar trajectory by making DVD movie collections more manageable.