Connected Home
Entertainment
Myths, Hype and Reality
Bill Rose
President
WJR Consulting Inc.
Connected Entertainment –
Two Perspectives
Consumers & The CE Industry
A Brief History of
Successful CE Products

Radio

VCR

TV

Cable Ready TV

Transistor Radio

CD

Walkman

DVD
What Is A Home
Entertainment Network?

It is NOT a PRODUCT

It is NOT an APPLICATION

It IS a FEATURE
Connected Entertainment Is
Not Home Networking
More Differences Than Similarities

Customer

Merchandizing

Retail Buyer

Product Life

Aisle

Cost of Returns

Salespeople

Consumer
Expectations
Consumer Expectations

Wired or Wireless






Simple, Reliable connections
Instant Gratification: 15 minute rule
Full resolution: SD today, HD tomorrow
Coverage: Everywhere – No Excuses
Premium content
Security
In short: Connectivity plus everything their
CE products give them today
CE Industry Needs
 In room connectivity

Multi-room connectivity

Agreed upon Standards

Mass Market Sales Channel

Compelling applications
In-Room Connectivity
3 Main Benefits

Reduce wire and connector
proliferation, expense, confusion

Enable features not otherwise
available or understandable

Share device resources
The Contenders:
Ethernet vs. 1394
Prediction
1394 wins the A/V connector if it achieves
Mass-Market penetration for
entertainment before Ethernet delivers
reliable and simple to use connectivity
and a solution for Ethernet CP / DRM is
accepted
CE Industry Needs

In room connectivity
 Multi-room
connectivity

Agreed upon Standards

Mass Market Sales Channel

Compelling applications
1394
Media
Server
Wireless
Adapter
Internet Connection
DVD
1394
STB
100
Base-T
Multi-room Connectivity
Requires No-New-Wires

Channel, Channel, Channel




“No Assembly Required”
A/V aisle won’t sell CAT5 or
solutions from other departments
Connectivity is a feature
Education is expensive
And so is wiring
No-New-Wires: Which Ones?

Wireless – WiFi set the table but can’t
serve the main course

Coax – The Entertainment Connector

PLC – maybe HomePlugTM v2.0

Phone - DOA
CE Industry Needs

In room connectivity

Multi-room connectivity
 Agreed
upon Standards

Mass Market Sales Channel

Compelling applications
Standards: The Consumer View

PHY/MAC – The connector is the Standard

Discovery and Addressing – Easy install

Media Formats – Ease of use

Command & Control – Remote Control

QoS – Reliability

Copy Protection/DRM – Content availability,
ease of use, …

Network Management – Customer support
(Huh?)
The Consumer Electronics
Association
Helping to Plug
the Holes
CEA Connected Entertainment
Initiatives

R7.5 WG8, WG1





WG8: CEA 2007 – QoS over IP/Ethernet
WG1: CEA 2005 – Network Adapter to connect 1394
(61883 streams) to Ethernet
WG3: CEA 931B – Man-Machine Interface
WG4: IP browser based interface
R7.6


CEA 2008 – Digital Entertainment Network: IP over
Ethernet
(Separating 2008 into Architecture plus interfaces)
Possible New Interfaces: 1394, wireless
CEA, Wireless and UPnP

R7.7 WG1



Wireless Networking: Mapping Apps to
Wireless HN solutions
New Work: Standardized Specs
UPnP v1.0 Referenced in CEA Standards



CEA 2008 (DENi – Entertainment over home
IP networks)
R7.4 / CEA 851 (IP over 1394 backbone)
Draft CEA 2005 – A/V Adapter
Other Initiatives With CEA
Member Support

Content Protection/DRM – PERM,
SmartRightTM, DTCP, others

IP over 1394 Isochronous channel

Isochronous Ethernet

Digital Home Working Group

UPnP
CE Industry Needs

In room connectivity

Multi-room connectivity

Agreed upon Standards

Mass Market Sales Channel
 Compelling
applications
Applications Drive Sales

Media Server drives HN drives DTV drives
Server

A/V Service Providers




DSS – Levels the playing field
MSO – Moving to retail
Both provide messaging
WEB Services


Adds BB to the mix, drives convergence
Requires integrated networks for many services
Web Services and
Consumer’s Electronics
Nearly invisible Web Services

Consumer sees or uses directly

Browser based interfaces,
information augmentation

Purchasing goods & content

Gaming

Etc.
Completely Invisible Web
Services

Automatic Purchasing and
Billing

Service Bundling – 1 phone / 3
connections

Network & configuration
management, firmware updates,
security, etc.
Drivers for Web Services:
Inside the home
 Entertainment
 Convenience
$
Savings
Drivers for Web Services:
Beyond the home
$$, $$, $$
2 Basic Approaches
1.
Existing Services
Transferred Revenue
Ex: Telephony
2.
New services
New revenue generation
Ex: Google
MYTH
Bandwidth can fix everything
Corollary: “Give me a big
enough lever and I will move the
world”
FACT: Both are true in theory,
not implementation

Wireless will always be bandwidth
challenged

Bandwidth is like processing speed and
memory – more is never enough

QoS, Guarantees are a must!!
MYTH
There will be a single unified
home network
FACT: Ignores buying habits and
market forces

People buy products one or two at a time for a
single purpose

No-new-wires will drive whole-home solutions

A/V and PC devices have different connectivity
needs

Commoditization of PC networks will keep them
separate for the next few years

To become unified


QoS and CP / DRM issues must be solved
Costs for entertainment connectivity must reach
parity with PC networks
The WiFi Highway Versus
High Speed Rail
How to move lots of freight, fast,
“When it absolutely, positively
has to get there on time”
The Wireless Highway –
CSMA/CA
802.11 Throughput Analysis
WiFi - Throughput Analysis
Technology
Raw
Through
put
Ideal TCP
payload
throughput
Real World
application
payload – est.
11b
11 Mbps
5.6 Mbps
1-2 Mbps
11a
54 Mbps
27.3 Mbps
4-10 Mbps
11g, no protection
54 Mbps
29.0 Mbps
4-12 Mbps
11g, CTS-to-self
protection
11g, RTS/CTS
protection
54 Mbps
13.4 Mbps
4-8 Mbps
54 Mbps
8.9 Mbps
3-6 Mbps
The TDMA RAILROAD
Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA)
Advantages

Support for Isochronous streams,
asynchronous IP/data

Improved bandwidth guarantees

Determinant latency, jitter

Enables improved RF performance
(distance/throughput)
TDMA Wireless Networks

Hiperlan2

802.15.3

802.15.3a (UWB)

Magis Networks’ AIR5TM
Example:
Magis Networks’ AIR5

Designed for Entertainment networks


TDMA MAC – Guaranteed QoS
10 msec guaranteed delay/jitter

PER: 10-10 after FEC

Security – 3DES, public and private key
exchange

Whole-home HDTV throughput
 >30 Mbps / 3000 sq ft home
Magis
TM
AIR5

Simultaneous TCP/IP, video, audio

802.11a phy - Coexists with 802.11

Power and Frequency agile

Adjacent Channel Utilization

Strong CE support

AIR5 SIG created to standardize
Conclusions
1.
Guaranteed payload delivered to the
application layer, at the point-of-use
is the only measurement that
counts.
Everything else is hype!
Conclusions
2. Think “Top Down”:
Consumer → Channel → Product →
Feature → Technology
Bill Rose
President, WJR Consulting Inc.
(860) 313-8098 (Office)
(860) 704-8098 (Mobile)
WJR74@AOL.COM
For the interconnected lifestyle
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For the interconnected lifestyle