Multimedia hits the home front

Electronics Times, August 24, 1998 by Svetlana Josifovska

Multimedia networking is set to create a home full of chattering devices,

The arrival of digital technologies and multimedia means that more and more digital systems are finding their way into the home.

At present they may only be the PC, hi-fi, and possibly a printer or a games console. But soon these will be complemented by digital versatile disk (DVD) systems, digital TVs, set-top boxes, smart-phones and advanced digital radios.

And with the rising number of such systems comes the question of how to connect them together to create an `intelligent home' through an effective infotainment system and the simplest method for its control.

With home multimedia networking just about to explode, consumer electronics companies, chip manufacturers and software firms have been joining forces to simplify these tasks, and are creating standards for various home multimedia platforms -- with or without the PC at the centre.

South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung is one the first companies to develop a multimedia digital TV that can be connected to many household audiovisual systems including the PC, digital VCR, DVD player and audio equipment.

The multimedia TV lies at the centre of Samsung's home network, dubbed the Home Wide Web (HWW). The connectivity is achieved through the IEEE-1394 link, which has been established as the standard for next-generation, high-speed multimedia interface.

A working prototype of HWW was recently demonstrated at the 1394 Trade Association Developers Conference in San Jose, US. It used a Samsung 55in high-definition TV, a VCR, a satellite receiver system and a PC. But it does allow the link up of other vendors' systems.

Jae Park, president of Samsung Information Systems, America, said: "In the future, the HWW will enable people to access their PC, the Web and all their digital electronics from a single point, even to control all their home systems from their office or a hotel as easily by using the Internet.

"Not only [with HWW] is the underlying technology less complex than that used in today's home audiovisual devices, its interface is familiar and easy to use by anyone with even minimal [Internet] experience."

Park has dubbed HWW as the "first convergence of the World Wide Web with consumer electronics and the first working sample for the home network using 1394".

Samsung's digital multimedia TV offers regular TV functions but it will also have an in-built Web browser for Internet access. It can be connected to up to 63 audiovisual boxes via the IEEE-1394 interface.

Each specific function of the connected equipment is recognised automatically by the digital TV and also displayed on its onscreen menu. It can be reached through a simple graphical user interface (GUI) using a single point-and-click device.

Kits targeted at upgrading the PCs with 1394 connectivity are already available on the market, with Adaptec leading the way. With its HotConnect kits, consisting of HotConnect 8920 and HotConnect Ultra 8945, digital data and still images can be transferred between computers and 1394 devices.

The HotConnect 8920 can connect up to 62 external 1394 devices to a PC, while the HotConnect Ultra makes use of the ultra-wide SCSI with 1394 on a single PCI card, and adds software to enable full-motion digital video transfer. Up to 15 SCSI devices and 62 1394 devices can be connected to a single machine using only one PCI slot in the system.

The 1394 is viewed as an important I/O technology that allows large bandwidth solutions from the desktop right through to the server.

Eight European and Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers decided to form a consumer comms platform independent of the PC but still linked via the 1394 interface.

Philips, Grundig, Thomson, Sharp, Matsushita, Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi have formed the Home Audio/Video Interoperability (HAVi) group to provide "a home network standard for the AV electronics and multimedia industries". It also hopes to take the edge over the PC industry, mainly led by Microsoft and Intel, and its home network solution in making.

A Thomson Multimedia spokesman said: "Although they are both based on the same physical interface -- the IEEE-1394 -- in our philosophy there's no master and no slave, and the protocol we adopted is oriented toward audiovisual systems. Every device will talk to any other and you can control any device from any other."

The HAVi system is based on an open, distributed architecture, open API and protocol. It will allow complete interoperability between all home AV systems, and will allow realtime interchange of digital data between them.

Tom Suters, project leader at Philips Research for digital interfaces, said: "No other specification has the completeness and comprehensivness of HAVi. We hope it'll become an industry standard for digital network products."

The group members want to include other standards, such as the Universal Serial Bus (USB) for example, into the platform as well as invite other vendors to join the group.