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My goal for the car media center is more for the benefit of my passengers, especially kids on long trips. Unlike the BMW Rear Seat Entertainment Professional with the rear seat integrated monitors, my car media center setup can use an iPad, iPhone, Android tablets, etc. which can connect by wifi. As to having music delivered to the car stereo system, there is of course bluetooth. The server hardware (laptop) can be placed in the trunk or in the passenger compartment (under the driver or front passenger seat). The wireless AP (Access Point) can be placed anywhere in the car. The server communicates and concurrently streams video and audio wirelessly to the AP. The AP acts as VOD/AOD (Video/Audio on Demand) connection point and all clients (iPads, iPhone, etc.) connect to it to get the stream. Wireless standards used are open, i.e. b/g/n (802.11b/g/n) which negotiates transmission rates from 1 to 300mbps (megabit(s) per second). I have set the clients (iPads, etc.) for 4mbps streams for the best quality video/audio. I have tested with 4 simultataneous clients (I only have an iPhone5, 3GS, iPAD1, iPAD3) viewing different media content without hiccups. I have ordered 2 Android tablets and once I get them I will do the test but I do not anticipate any problems. As far as power, the media server (laptop) can run on its own (4 hours max serving 4 clients) or connect via the 12V Car adapter. The portable AP can also connect to any 12V source via an Adapter. I ordered a small 6000mAh backup battery the size of an iPhone and once I get it I will test how long the AP can run on it continuously.
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