News

Digital Home

11/02/2010
Connected TV: Digital Home booster
Digital Home

Connected devices will constitute a market of 149 billion EUR in 2013 in Europe, Japan & USA

ISPs are no longer the only service providers supplying access to the Internet. Mobile operators also provide connection to the Web thanks to third-generation access which is now widely available: in France, for instance, over 70% of the population is covered for 3G.

Although generally acquired when away from home, content is usually consumed in the convenience and comfort of the home.So bringing content into the digital home is no longer a problem, as connected devices meet consumers’ needs and behaviour patterns. The problem that consumers do face is how to transfer the content between the devices that make up the digital home in a fast, easy and intuitive way. IDATE believes that no single view of the digital home will prevail monumentally over the others, and that each has its own advantages and drawbacks. The market share captured by each configuration will ultimately evolve according to the progress made by the solutions involved, and as consumers become more savvy. We have therefore distinguished the following stages of market development:

• market opens up via solutions that combine devices, service offerings and proprietary content (“silos” scenario)

• the parallel development of technical solutions that improve interoperability inside the home, either thanks to interoperable devices (“seamless” scenario) or through a central multimedia server (“home servers” scenario);

• the gradual rise of services and content integrated into the devices (“store” scenario);

• the eventual switch to online solutions ("Home-in-the-cloud" scenario).

Progress made in home networks
The biggest issue that currently faces the smooth circulation of content within the home is the amount of bandwidth available indoors. Thanks to ADSL and optical fibre access, bringing content into the home is no longer a problem. Connectivity between the devices is making strides thanks to three technologies that are now widely available: Wi-Fi, cables and powerline carrier systems, all of which continue to make progress.

• To overcome bandwidth problems, American firm Zeevee markets a solution based on the use of coaxial cables that make it possible to distribute content at high speeds to all rooms in the house that are equipped with these cables.

• Several consortia are promoting very high-speed wireless solutions, including Wi-Fi   Direct, providing direct connection between devices, independent of the router; the WiGig Alliance, offering Wi-Fi connection in the 60 GHz band, and the WHDI (wireless high-definition video interface) alliance.

DNLA Connectivity
Moving content around within a complex environment made up of disparate devices, all of which have different purposes (storage, control, viewing, listening, etc.) remains a complicated affair. To remedy the outstanding issues, a number of consortia have been formed over the past few years, their purpose being to establish norms and standards for the communication process between devices to make them directly interoperable ("plug and connect"). A prime example is the DLNA, or Digital Living Network Association.