The In Wall iPhone Media Station or iWIMS, has embraced the iPhone generation and provides an effective and attractive alternative to iPhone docks in Home, Work, and Travel environments. iWIMS is a flush wall mount iPhone/iPod dock that provides recharging capabilities, playback capabilities and line level outputs for whole house music system integration all while still being able to control the iPhone wirelessly. The iWIMS is offered in two variants, variant-1, the In Wall iPhone Media Station with Projection or iWIMS-WP, will consist of an 80-Watt amplifier and sterio speakers. Variant-2, the In Wall iPhone Media Station without Projection or iWIMS-WOP, will not have an audio projection system but provide line-level outputs.

iWIMS-WP

This unit is the first ever in wall iPhone/iPod media station. It allows homeowners to dock their iPhone on the dock and enjoy the rich and vibrant sound through the built-in 80watt amplification and sound projection modules. The user will have the ability to control the track selection and volume via an IR-remote interface. Ideally, every bedroom in a house would have its own dedicated unit.

iWIMS-WOP

The iWIMS-WOP variant is intended for use in whole house audio system or other stand alone audio system. This variant does not include the audio projection capabilities of the iWIMS-WP but instead include stereo line-level output mounted in a flush mount wall plate that can be installed at any desired location. This allows the iWIMS-WOP to output standard line-level stereo signals via a standard RCA interface that can be fed into any home theater or whole house audio system.

Since the iWIMS-WP and iWIMS-WOP are flush mount, they do require cutting into the drywall, this is why the iWIMS are designed for future supportability in mind. If the iPhone or iPod is no longer the standard in personal music or if apple decides to change the PDMI standard it currently implents, the user will have option of swapping either the connector interface or the main board in the dock with a replacement board. This will allow the iWIMS to support future generations of portable music devices.

The iWIMS will employ no ASIC or custom hardware other than the Injection molded frame for the wall unit. The iWIMS will rely heavily on the use of COTS components in its electronics design. The amplification module will use a LM4766 overture amplifier as the heart of its design. The interface between the main board and the dock daughter board will be via a standard DB-25 connector. By using a DB-25 connector, no connect pins (NC) can be used as future boards are released for upgradability. The use of COTS components will allow for reduction of overall system development and manufacturing cost.

The iWIMS could not only be marketed to home owners but also hotels. Hotel owners would install an iWIMS-WP in each guest room. This would allow the hotel to have a touch to technology not traditionally found in hotel rooms. The iWIMS-WP’s would be a cost effect method of adding additional amenities.