A few years back the cablecos’ main concern was getting video entertainment to the home. Then it was connecting every home at high speed to the Net. Today they are increasingly concerned about distributing video entertainment within the home, hence industry alliances such as MoCA to develop secure high-speed home networks.
This week at the cablecos’ CableLabs Summer Conference, Silicon Image’s low-cost HDMI multi-room/multi-device network chip was voted as the most interesting new product out of 11 that were presented.
Perhaps showing a trend was that last year’s winner was Ruckus Wireless, which makes hardware for a supercharged version of Wi-Fi that it developed.
Silicon Image, a semiconductor company that farms out production (making it fabless), co-invented the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) technology that is used to carry high-definition video between devices such as a Blu-ray player and an HDTV. In fact, one of the checklist items for buying an HDTV these days is the number of HDMI connectors it has. Separate ones are needed for each device, DVD player, Apple TV, pay-TV set-top box, DVR, surround sound system and the like.
A set-top box such as a DVR with the new chip would be able to send multiple video streams to multiple TV sets over existing coax or electrical cables. Silicon Image says its new chips can be integrated into TV sets and other consumer electronics (CE) gear but until that happens, it expects add-on dongles will be offered to connect devices. Low-cost HDMI chips could also be built in to non-traditional home CE gear such as MP3 players, mobile handsets and laptops.
Silicon Image was careful to say that its technology does not replace MoCA or Powerline networking but in fact needs network transports like them to transmit the videos. The set-top box would need a separate tuner for each TV set that is connected.
Silicon Image CEO Steve Tirado said he expects the chip, which will be available for CE makers to work with by year-end, to cost $8 to $10 initially, less as volumes increase. He said the consumer electronics industry is very interested.
Comcast CTO Tony Werner said his company expects the number of devices in the home to “explode.” Comcast, he said, wants to be able to deliver its content to all of them.
Other products that were presented that are interesting to the digital media crowd are:
BroadSoft: Its “Click2Message” allows Facebook users to download an application that lets friends call them by clicking an icon on their Facebook page.
Itaas: A tru2way- and EBIF-based “mobile product and television” (MPTV) platform that allows content and applications to be delivered seamlessly to the TV, Web and wireless devices.
PeerApp: Its Intelligent Media Caching algorithms for broadband service providers allow P2P and HTTP content to be cached based on the popularity or frequency of use, content freshness and accuracy. Content can be delivered more quickly to the subscriber because it is stored and served from a location that’s closer to the subscriber. An additional benefit is that it reduces the load on a broadband network.
Arris: Fair Bandwidth Manager (FBM) distributes bandwidth based on usage, resulting in a fairer bandwidth allocation among subscribers without violating unwritten Net neutrality concerns.
PerfTech: It showed one of those annoying but apparently necessary transparent watermarks that are used to identify the channel or, often in animated form, show upcoming programs. PerfTech’s new Internet Watermark allows the broadband service provider to display its logo or other fixed or animated transparent image on the browser. No kidding!