Digital Media Convergence News - Convergence Goes Mainstream
Story courtesy of http://www.convergedigest.com/bp-ttp/bp1.asp?ID=309&ctgy=Home
Digital Convergence Goes Mainstream
by Charlie Hartley, Media Relations Manager - 1/27/2006
Having been exposed to an overabundance of trade show booths, slot machines, iPod nanos and other assorted gizmos, it has taken me a few weeks to de-compress from the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show and pull together my overall impressions.The message from CES is clear: Convergence is everywhere in high-tech, from the infrastructure to the cell phones, from satellite radio to home networking, from cable TV to phone service.
In many cases it’s all about all converging onto fewer networks and platforms, using fewer devices, fewer silicon chips, fewer remote control devices, fewer equipment boxes, and fewer content mediums. To a great degree, less is more in the world of convergence. When you boil it all down, mobilizing all this content and technology convergence--moving it, delivering it and storing it--emerged as a central theme. Enabling networked mobility and portable media access was one arena that shouted out loud and clearly will be at the heart of consumer electronics for the next several years.
Satellite radio service has never been more hyped nor growing faster than it is now. Sirius, for example, announced during the show that it expects to have more than six million subscribers by the end of this year, almost twice the 3.3 million it reported at the end of last year.
The convergence of this technology within home networking, video streaming environments also gaining momentum as a concept that could eventually transform into a real business opportunity. The ability of Gigabit Ethernet to boost mobile notebook and laptop computers also emerged as a theme. With more homes owning more than one PC, demand for each of those PCs to download video files at higher speeds increases. Technologies were introduced at CES that infuse huge speed increases to such mobilized PCs without having to pay to replace them.And storage has begun to take more of a central role in the growth of home networking.
At CES, chips were shown that can store and move huge amounts of data within home networks. One of many applications is simplified networked storage and digital photo archiving. This will ensure that grandparents do not lose the many pictures of their grandchildren if their computer system crashes.These network attached storage chips can also pump multiple streams of high definition TV throughout a home network. Imagine -- the same movie shown on four or five different TVs in a home at the same time with the same HDTV quality.
This means the ability to stream the content you want to any device whenever you want it. A few years ago skeptics might have doubted the need for such capability in a home. There simply were not as many TVs and PCs in the average house. But today the trend is definitely toward more video-enabled devices in the home. And the chip technology for enabling this convergence is finally coalescing into market-ready products.Along with this video and storage buzz, any visitor to CES could not miss the overriding hum of music.
With the iPod's popularity soaring toward the trade show rafters, and the constant chatter about satellite radio unavoidable, the consumer electronics industry has found a killer application, something people will really pay money to obtain: higher quality, more easily accessible, economically storable, and affordable music.So as I take my final glance at this gigantic and all-important show for assessing the progress of high-tech convergence, a tune rings in my head, the tune that keeps reminding me that music has an exciting and lucrative place on the landscape of ideas and opportunities for where this industry is headed in the future. The high-tech industry is converging on music.
That's a melody we all should be listening to carefully.
About the Author
Charlie Hartley is a media relations manager with Agere Systems based in Allentown, PA. His focus is on the Telecom Division and Enterprise and Networking Divisions within the communications semiconductor company. He has nearly ten years of experience in media relations, and, overall, nearly twenty in the writing profession, including nearly five years as a telecom business and technology reporter and editor. He earned a Master of Arts Degree in Journalism from The American University and an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from RutgersUniversity.
About Agere
Agere Systems is a global leader in semiconductors for storage, wireless data, and public and enterprise networks. The company's chips and software power a broad range of computing and communications applications, from cell phones, PCs, PDAs, hard disk drives and gaming devices to the world's most sophisticated wireless and wireline networks. Agere's customers include top manufacturers of consumer electronics, communications and computing equipment. Agere's products connect people to information and entertainment at home, at work and on the road-enabling the connected lifestyle.
-----
Lots more articles and reviews like this are at http://www.ipods-and-onlinevideo-reviews.com.
Chip Tarver
Digital Convergence Goes Mainstream
by Charlie Hartley, Media Relations Manager - 1/27/2006
Having been exposed to an overabundance of trade show booths, slot machines, iPod nanos and other assorted gizmos, it has taken me a few weeks to de-compress from the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show and pull together my overall impressions.The message from CES is clear: Convergence is everywhere in high-tech, from the infrastructure to the cell phones, from satellite radio to home networking, from cable TV to phone service.
In many cases it’s all about all converging onto fewer networks and platforms, using fewer devices, fewer silicon chips, fewer remote control devices, fewer equipment boxes, and fewer content mediums. To a great degree, less is more in the world of convergence. When you boil it all down, mobilizing all this content and technology convergence--moving it, delivering it and storing it--emerged as a central theme. Enabling networked mobility and portable media access was one arena that shouted out loud and clearly will be at the heart of consumer electronics for the next several years.
Satellite radio service has never been more hyped nor growing faster than it is now. Sirius, for example, announced during the show that it expects to have more than six million subscribers by the end of this year, almost twice the 3.3 million it reported at the end of last year.
The convergence of this technology within home networking, video streaming environments also gaining momentum as a concept that could eventually transform into a real business opportunity. The ability of Gigabit Ethernet to boost mobile notebook and laptop computers also emerged as a theme. With more homes owning more than one PC, demand for each of those PCs to download video files at higher speeds increases. Technologies were introduced at CES that infuse huge speed increases to such mobilized PCs without having to pay to replace them.And storage has begun to take more of a central role in the growth of home networking.
At CES, chips were shown that can store and move huge amounts of data within home networks. One of many applications is simplified networked storage and digital photo archiving. This will ensure that grandparents do not lose the many pictures of their grandchildren if their computer system crashes.These network attached storage chips can also pump multiple streams of high definition TV throughout a home network. Imagine -- the same movie shown on four or five different TVs in a home at the same time with the same HDTV quality.
This means the ability to stream the content you want to any device whenever you want it. A few years ago skeptics might have doubted the need for such capability in a home. There simply were not as many TVs and PCs in the average house. But today the trend is definitely toward more video-enabled devices in the home. And the chip technology for enabling this convergence is finally coalescing into market-ready products.Along with this video and storage buzz, any visitor to CES could not miss the overriding hum of music.
With the iPod's popularity soaring toward the trade show rafters, and the constant chatter about satellite radio unavoidable, the consumer electronics industry has found a killer application, something people will really pay money to obtain: higher quality, more easily accessible, economically storable, and affordable music.So as I take my final glance at this gigantic and all-important show for assessing the progress of high-tech convergence, a tune rings in my head, the tune that keeps reminding me that music has an exciting and lucrative place on the landscape of ideas and opportunities for where this industry is headed in the future. The high-tech industry is converging on music.
That's a melody we all should be listening to carefully.
About the Author
Charlie Hartley is a media relations manager with Agere Systems based in Allentown, PA. His focus is on the Telecom Division and Enterprise and Networking Divisions within the communications semiconductor company. He has nearly ten years of experience in media relations, and, overall, nearly twenty in the writing profession, including nearly five years as a telecom business and technology reporter and editor. He earned a Master of Arts Degree in Journalism from The American University and an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from RutgersUniversity.
About Agere
Agere Systems is a global leader in semiconductors for storage, wireless data, and public and enterprise networks. The company's chips and software power a broad range of computing and communications applications, from cell phones, PCs, PDAs, hard disk drives and gaming devices to the world's most sophisticated wireless and wireline networks. Agere's customers include top manufacturers of consumer electronics, communications and computing equipment. Agere's products connect people to information and entertainment at home, at work and on the road-enabling the connected lifestyle.
-----
Lots more articles and reviews like this are at http://www.ipods-and-onlinevideo-reviews.com.
Chip Tarver
posted by Chip Tarver at
12:53 PM
