Axium has announced that the AX-800-DAV amplifier now has a streaming media player built in. This new feature is available free of charge for anyone who already owns an AX800-DAV or is looking to purchase one.

The new firmware offers extensive upgrades to the media player, and now includes TuneIn and Pandora. With the added UPnP users can access the “play from my device” functionality from the Axium mobile app, and browse and playback local media from their LAN. Music location can be configured via the web interface or through ADP.

Additionally, the expansion bus ports on the back panel are no longer used. Instead, the communications and IR transferred between amplifiers is done over the network.

KPC-N Ethernet capabilities have also been extended, without needing an R1D/R4D (KPC-N firmware update required). This allows for direct amplifier control over Ethernet without having to use the slower keypad port, and IR commands can be made over Ethernet and directed to amplifier ports.

KNX support has been removed and the front panel GUI functionality reduced. This was necessary for the media player upgrades. KNX is still available with fw 4.5.