All this chatter about AirPlay has me thinking, it’s great AirPlay (formerly AirTunes) can expand to third party hardware developers, but what about software? And to what extent can hardware developers utilize AirPlay?

The alphabet soup that is my collection of media nzb, mkv, avi, etc, works great with Quicktime + Perian, but not so well with iTunes. When will we see desktop class applications like Quicktime X and VLC for OS X support AirPlay?

It’s great iPads can push content through VLC or Pandora to your television, but wouldn’t it be more beneficial for AirPlay to be coaxed into independent media servers like small NAS or RAIDs that may already store your iTunes content?

Would it be weird having your gaming systems include AirPlay? Or DVD players? Or better yet, have it built directly into your TV? Will Apple purposely limit the applications that can stream content to iOS and iTunes? Or will it open up to applications big and small like Airfoil once did for AirTunes?

We want to have our content in a centralized location, easy to manage, easy to access and easy to control. Ideally without the need for a persistent PC running behind it. Maybe this is just the solution needed to expand the living room past a hobby and into actual productivity. Thankfully we’re already seeing innovative, cost friendly solutions in the market and hopefully by CES, we’ll see the true potential of AirPlay partnerships and its existence beside our media.