Feature
Networking the Home
By Kassandra Kania
Mar 13, 2007, 10:52

With PCs, televisions, game consoles and other devices proliferating, sharing content and occupying ever more central places in the home, the major unsolved problem remains home networking.

As the average American home comes increasingly to resemble an enterprise data center, will a dedicated IT staff be required to run it? The consumer electronics industry is working hard to let families remain in charge of their own electronic destinies. New devices are being designed ready for networking, and new networking technologies promise to tame the electronic clutter.

Home Networking at the Consumer Electronics Show

This year's Consumer Electronics Show was noteworthy for the number of home networking solutions announced. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, in his keynote address, announced plans for Windows Home Server, home networking software that will be available later this year. When it is implemented on forthcoming hardware such as HP’s MediaSmart Server and AMD's Home Media Server, Windows Home Server will help multi-PC households connect their home computers, digital devices and printers, and make it easier to share and manage digital media. The Home Server will also enable centralized backup and restore, as well as centralized troubleshooting for Windows Vista–based PCs.

Backup issues were also addressed by Proxure’s new KeepVault application, which uses Streamload storage technology to enable Windows PC users to back up media files online and access them from anywhere. Through KeepVault, files are backed up to MediaMax, Streamload’s online media center, for access via the KeepVault interface or any Web browser. Users get 25 GB of free online storage for their media.

Amedia Networks took a somewhat similar approach to Microsoft's with its Broadband Entertainment Center -- an all-in-one gateway, home networking appliance and personal media library. The Broadband Entertainment Center is designed to replace the computer as the media hub and central point of networking within the connected home. Users can store, organize, and search multimedia content in personal media libraries on the residential gateway, and then play that content on virtually any television, monitor, or networked device.

Oregan Networks’ novel approach to home networking uses mobile handsets as portable media hubs. Home videos, photos and music stored on WiFi-connected handsets, such as the Nokia N80 and N90 series, can be “pushed” onto media renderers, or Digital Media Player devices, powered by Oregan Media Browser software. Oregan Media Browser works on multiple operating systems and hardware platforms.

Other home networking products included:

• HP’s new high-definition TVs are designed to let consumers view and share high-definition content throughout the home. For example, the MediaSmart TV SLC3760N can stream high-definition DivX-encoded content over wired or wireless networks, from a home theater PC or from HP Media Vault network storage.
• AMD introduced the AMD LIVE! Home Cinema, a home entertainment system that consolidates audiovisual devices and related remote controls into an all-in-one “living room” solution.
• Verizon revealed the FiOS generation of its Verizon One communications device, which combines a telephone, Internet modem and wireless router with a high-resolution touch screen that can be used for e-mail, text messaging and basic Internet lookup functions like news and weather. The device will accommodate traditional and VoIP phone calls while streaming Internet music to stereo speakers and previewing images from digital cameras or camcorders. It will also play movie trailers from the Internet, connect to a printer and support up to five handsets throughout the home.

The biggest question of all is how devices will be connected. No universal strategy seems yet to have emerged. Networks using in-home fiber, coax, power line, wireless and a new contender, ultrawideband, were all showcased at CES:

• Tenvera announced the Tenvera System, which connects consumer electronics through a high-capacity fiber network that allows video, voice, and data to be transmitted uncompressed, with no loss of quality. Media servers, HDTVs, Internet service, PCs, and iPods can all be connected through this system.
• HomePlug Powerline Alliance, an alliance of technology, service and content companies promoting networking through existing power lines, said it had granted its “Designed for HomePlug AV” mark to 14 products from 11 companies. The latest round of HomePlug testing is the first to identify products designed for a high-speed connectivity solution. Linksys was one of the companies announcing products designed for HomePlug AV. Its PowerLine AV Ethernet Kit connects computers, networked entertainment products and peripheral devices at speeds up to 100 Mbps, using in-home power lines.
• Pulse-LINK introduced its CWave Whole-Home Interactive HD solution, which lets consumers share high-definition content throughout the home using a combination of existing coax backbone and wireless connectivity.
• Ruckus Wireless introduced a miniaturized wireless multimedia adapter, the MediaFlex USB Dongle, to connect in-home multimedia devices like set-top boxes and media center systems. The MediaFlex Dongle is an external WiFi adapter in a small form factor that enables whole-home video distribution.
• WiQuest Communications demonstrated home networking via ultrawideband, a radio communications technique that is based on transmitting pulses of short duration and high bandwidth, using its WQST110/101 chipset in equipment from Belkin, Hitachi-LG, Samsung and Toshiba Wireless Connectivity Solutions.