Interfacing with home networks.
Media centres provide total content management solutions through ‘one source multiple delivery platform’ capabilities. They offer global transmission of services like Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), Video-on-Demand (VoD) and streaming distribution capabilities via terrestrial fibre optics and satellite. They also offer:
- Broadcast quality studio, mobile and post-production services;
- origination services for linear TV networks and live events;
- High Definition TV (HDTV) production and origination; and
- quality control and media management services, including encoding and storage.
My first home media centre experience was back to 1981, when I demonstrated in my home in the Netherlands the ‘Home of the Future’, together with the local consumer electronics and telecoms industries. While very little of that service took place in any integrated format, I was able to demonstrate most of the services that we are still trying to introduce some 25 years later. The concept was already there all those years ago. The next event I attended was in 1994 when Comcast launched, very much ahead of its time, the first media platform delivering, which had, amongst other services, Video-On-Demand (VoD). I was there again when the relaunch of this service took place exactly a decade later, at the same NCTA show, in the same city, New Orleans.
The big difference between these three events is broadband. In 2007 we now have an infrastructure platform that is able to deliver video quality entertainment over such networks. Of course, the market hasn’t stood still in the meantime and there are now several players, all coming from different industries – the cable TV industry in the USA, the telcos, the IT industry and the consumer electronics industry.
Media centres certainly have the potential to power an entire family of devices designed to work together. These devices can power a single TV directly, while also serving as the central manager of all the digital content in a home. The concept is right; now we just have to figure out the right model and the right business approach, and this requires industry cooperation.
Migrating from PC-centric beginnings
Home networking is now migrating beyond its PC-centric beginnings, to incorporate a variety of consumer electronics (CE) devices, from digital TVs, to multi-room DVRs, digital media adapters, set top boxes and game consoles. The drive to incorporate IP-based connectivity in more CE and PC devices is being driven by both telecom/network operators and consumer electronics manufacturers. By the end of 2006, 76 million home LANs were deployed.
IPTV and multi-room DVR demand is driving cable, satellite and telecom operators to consider a variety of new high-speed home networking technologies, ranging from Coax (Moca, HPNA, Hana), to powerline, to WiFi (802.11n).
TV and other CE manufacturers are incorporating IP-based connectivity to enable a path to both user-created content and to new Internet-based media portals. This will be vital for Internet TV growth.
The awareness and demand for media home networking is growing among consumers. According to iSuppli’s Q1 2007 consumer demand survey:-
- 61% of respondents “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they wanted the ability to connect the internet to their TV.
- Male respondents were even more favourable with a 71% “agreed” or “strongly agreed” response.
Across select computing, consumer electronics and consumer networking devices, iSuppli’s research identified nearly 240 million networked devices shipped in 2006. These devices will grow to nearly 760 million networked devices by 2011. By 2011, WiFi will be the most common physical interface, followed by Cat 5, and powerline, and Coax, in relative percentage of shipments. The technology choice will be significantly influenced by which geographic region devices are shipped into.
Among the different physical interface technologies, 802.11x is projected to have the largest silicon TAM through 2011; however, we will see a sharp rise of Coax and Powerline.
For more information see:-
Global – Digital Media – Home Media Centres
2007 Global Digital Media Volume 2 – Content and Application Markets
