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The broadband "triple play" is garnering much attention as telecommunications carriers, cable operators and other service providers battle to bring consumers a rich combination of voice, video and data from a single source. While getting digital content, communications and other services to the home is obviously important, we shouldn't overlook the need to distribute that content within the home. It's not enough for service providers to simply get content to the consumer's doorstep. Consumers will want to access the wealth of content arriving at their broadband gateway in many locations and on many different devices throughout and beyond the home. The ability to stream music to a stereo system in the downstairs living room; to transfer movies from the family room's set-top digital video recorder (DVR) to the kids' room; or answer telephone calls on a wireless voice-over-IP handset in the den - these are just a few options that should be available to users. The more consumers can do with their services and content, the more compelled they will be to sign up for a bundle of services in the first place.
If broadband triple play services are to be adopted at mass-market levels, industry-wide standards must be developed that make it simple for consumers to set up, interconnect and use devices that will consume these services. This article will explore the ongoing efforts of a key industry consortium, the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), to address these issues. Some technically savvy customers are already trying to accomplish digital home networking on their own. VoIP services are cutting into traditional phone markets, laptops with Wi-Fi adapters and access points are now commonly found in the home, and consumers are linking their digital audio players to stereo systems in far-flung rooms. The typical home user, however, doesn't have the patience or ability to struggle through obtuse manuals and access online discussion groups in order to bring these disparate devices and services together. Consumer electronics manufacturers (CEMs) must find ways to make a variety of devices work in harmony, otherwise the adoption of the broadband triple play will be severely limited. That's where industry standards and new emerging technologies for home networking come into the picture. Over the past several years, various attempts to forge cohesive home networking standards have met with mixed results. The Home Phoneline Networking Association (HomePNA), the Home Audio Video Interoperability (HAVi) Organization, and the HomePlug Powerline Alliance all started with high hopes, but none has achieved critical mass and market momentum. There are various reasons for this: Some rely on immature or costly technologies that lack broad adoption, while others are based on proprietary technologies that individual companies have tried to promote as standards. Thankfully for both CEMs and consumers, a collection of technologies that enables seamless home networking have become mature and can be economically incorporated into consumer electronics devices. These essential technologies include Ethernet, Wi-Fi, IP networking, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and various digital media encodings such as MPEG3 and MPEG4. More importantly, a consortium of more than 200 CE, software and semiconductor companies is now bringing all of these disparate technologies together in a consistent whole under the rubric of the DLNA. This broad alliance, with buy-in from leading companies like Sony, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, Intel, Microsoft, HP, Nokia and many others, has a very real opportunity to make seamless home networking a reality. page 1 of 4 |
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