Monolith Revamped

Well, it has been a rollercoaster of a journey over the past few months. While the dissolution of zap2it Labs knocked the wind out of the DIY DVR community, SchedulesDirect and MythTV made a strong comeback. Now, it is time for MonolithMC, Inc. to do the same.

So, I am proud to announce the new MonolithMC.com!

The look and feel of the website is a complete change from before. White with black lettering makes reading easier on the eyes while the wider typeset allows for more content on fewer pages. Fewer pages means easier navigation and less clicking. For the same reason, a Tech Specs page has been created which outlines the hardware and software found in every Monolith model.

The new website is riding on top of a complete revamp of the MonolithMC, Inc. infrastructure. The MonolithMC, Inc. database now completely drives all aspects of the business from finances and inventory sourcing through order placement and user support.

The user portion of the site is in development which is intended to give users complete control of their Monolith experience. From order placement and shipment tracking to system configuration and technical support. While this vision is broad, progress is being made quickly.

This is a lot of talk, but where do you currently stand?

Good question! Well, we currently have a configuration page which lets customers specify their entertainment center setups (Cable box make and model, antennas, etc). From there we generate a configuration script and customized installation instructions. Benefits to this method include:

• Reduced setup time
• More familiar configuration interface (webpage vs. MythTV setup)
• Logging of configuration selections for better suppport from MonolithMC, Inc.

With the new configuration and automated features in the pipeline, MonolithMC, Inc. developers have been able to focus more on product improvements rather than “keeping the lights on” of daily business operation. We’ve already seen time improvements in many of our processes and reduced support time - so we’re glad to announce some more good news…

All new Monolith Media Centers will ship with the acclaimed Ubuntu Linux 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon Operating System.

Congratulations to the team.

Additionally, business intelligence has suggested we reconfigure our product lineup based on customer and market trends. The new lineup features two models - MonolithMC: 4200+ ($699) and MonolithMC: 5200+ ($899). All models are dual tuner with HD upgrades available. While we apologize for dissolving our single tuner model to those considering purchasing, we feel the new lineup will better fit the majority of our customer’s feature and support needs.

We hope you will enjoy the improvements in both presentation, support and product evolution and we will keep you updated as more advancements are made. As always, please let us know what you think.

Cheers!