After years of producing devices that only connected together locally via cables, consumer electronics companies offered their vision of a networked digital future at the recent International Consumer Electronics Show (ICES) in Las Vegas.
The connected home was on the lips of everyone from Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates, who talked of "devices working together with synergy to realise the potential of the digital decade", to Sony's chief executive, Kunitake Ando, who predicted the re-birth of the TV as "an always-on connected device". Although the concept of home networking is still in its infancy in the UK, in the USA, a country where broadband internet connections are already widespread (33.6m homes, according to Nielsen Net Ratings), huge growth is predicted over the next few years.
In keeping with almost every area of consumer electronics, home networking is in the middle of a format war. For distributing video around the home, consumers can choose from wired systems, like Texas Instruments' 1349b and HomePlug AV, and wireless alternatives such as 802.11a. Although they can't yet rival the bandwidth and flexibility of wired connections, the convenience of wireless formats should ensure that in the long term, they come out on top.
One of the highlights at ICES was the Air5 wireless solution offered by the San Diego-based chipset manufacturer Magis Networks. The system takes the physical specification of the 802.11a system and adds proprietary technology, which allocates bandwidth based on the priority of data type.
Up to seven video streams could be delivered from a central server to different screens around the home. Several manufacturers of plasma and LCD screens demonstrated the system at ICES, including Sanyo, which billed its set as the first completely wireless TV.
Analysts predict that the preferred means of distribution for wireless video will be via a central server. Aware that Microsoft is grooming the next generation of its Media Center PCs to fulfil this role, a cluster of companies showed their home entertainment servers. Panasonic displayed its AVC server system, which combines a high capacity hard disk video recorder with a Wi-Fi transmitter to output video signals to TVs, screens and PCs around the home.
Sony showed its Cocoon, a personal video recorder with an enormous 160GB hard disk (enough for more than 100 hours of video), and features a broadband internet connection, which searches an online viewing guide for the programmes you want to record. At the opposite end of the price spectrum, the American company SonicBlue unveiled a DVD player that can access PC content such as MP3s and still images and videos.
The Go Video D2730 can work either via a wired Ethernet connector or as part of a Wi-Fi system. It goes on sale in the US in March for around $250. Other products included Pioneer's Digital Library DL 1000 - an 80GB hard drive that can store music, images and video content and connect to the net.
It goes on sale in the US in May for $1,000. If distributing video around the home wirelessly is challenging, transporting MP3 files from the PC to the living room is slightly easier. Philips displayed the latest version of its Streamium internet connected hi-fi system. The MC-i250, due here in the next few months, connects wirelessly with a PC via Wi-Fi to access internet radio stations and MP3 files.
Yamaha displayed its MusicCast server, which combines a CD player with an 80GB hard disk. It can use a Wi-Fi system to stream 10 different songs to up to 10 locations around the home. British companies were also well represented in the audio server sector. Imerge showed its S2000 Soundserver, Meridian its Reference Music Server and Linn its Kivor Index 250.
The next big move in home networking will come from the PC rather than the consumer electronics industry. Later this year should see more developments in Apple's Rendezvous networking technology. Meanwhile, the second generation of Microsoft's Media Center XP technology, scheduled for launch at next year's show, should help re-position the PC as a complete media server. It will be interesting to see how consumer electronics companies respond.
