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First Universal Technology's "ushebas" have begun playing music for the masses at HMV's London store on Oxford Street. The company's ushebas are similar to the listening posts that can already be found at many HMV stores and let users listen to music before they buy it. But the company says that its products are more advanced than the posts currently available in shops because they can play the entire catalogue of a store's music, rather than just a few CDs.
HMV is still digitally encoding its entire catalogue of music, which will have 30 second samples from each song on each album. The music is stored on the First Universal databases in Dublin and is passed over its servers to the usheba terminals in the HMV store. First Universal has patents on the software and hardware behind the ushebas, which are manufactured to specification in Taiwan.
The company says it has plans to offer more on the ushebas than just music. "We can also play DVD trailers and games, but it's not live yet. Right now, HMV are only using it for music but we have plans to provide HMV with games and DVD in the future," Hugh O'Flaherty, general manager of First Universal Technology told ElectricNews.Net.
HMV is the first retail store to offer its customers the usheba listening post. O'Flaherty said, "This is our first customer win, and we're using this as a showcase for our technology. HMV are evaluating it at this one store at the moment." He added that the company is also in talks with Virgin, Blockbuster and Trans World Entertainment Corporation.
HMV is a start in First Universal's business strategy at targeting tier one consumer entertainment stores. O'Flaherty explained the company's objective saying, "We want to become the global provider of this kind of technology; we see our initial rollouts in the UK and hope to be in the States soon after."
The company employs six people in Dublin and completed its last round of funding in August 2000 when it closed STG0.5 million provided by IIU (International Investments Underwriting), a company backed by Dermot Desmond. The company can be found at http://www.usheba.com.
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