Not surprisingly, there has been a lot of Connected Home related news coming out of Las Vegas this week during International CES 2014. Here is a round-up of the video entertainment related news, starting with links to stories we have published elsewhere:
Plenty of CES interest in DLNA CVP-2, which secures Pay TV content for home sharing
Sigma Designs shows that HomePNA and G.hn can co-exist on the same home network
Swisscom is using SoftAtHome software for its new home gateway
DISH dramatically expands Hopper whole-home client options
ACCESS has been demonstrating its Commercial Video Profile-2 (CVP-2) capability. Integrated with the NetFront Living Connect DLNA Technology Component the company provides, the CVP-2 guidelines allow operators to stream premium content inside the home by leveraging standardized technologies such as HTML5 RUIs and HTTP Adaptive Delivery and Authentication on top of the DTCP-IP-based link layer protection. CVP-2 also includes new 3D Media formats, ‘Diagnostic’ and ‘Low Power’ mode capabilities to improve the service delivery to the customer.
ACCESS is also highlighting the integration of NetFront Browser NX with world leading chipsets as well as a television set. The company says NetFront Browser NX offers industry leading HTML5 performance, has low memory requirements and has an advanced RDK and support for all leading TV standards such as HbbTV.
ACCESS is also showing how support for DLNA standards, including HTML5, have been integrated in a CDN to offer a seamless, unified TV experience through the cloud, including content sharing across all devices via a centralized HTML5 Remote User Interface (RUI).
We reported from IBC last year how ACCESS and Alcatel-Lucent Velocix were showing that the CDN can now be treated as another DLNA server, with a DLNA client looking for metadata about programmes and VOD or live streams from the CDN. This opens the way to treating OTT and broadcast infrastructure as a common resource for in-home devices seeking content, with unified resource management (e.g. the client device knows where to get content from depending on which is the optimum delivery method that also provides the user experience needed at the time). You can read more about that here.
NAGRA is showcasing its JoinIn blueprint for the connected home in Las Vegas. JoinIn is a reference architecture that helps service providers overcome the complexities, constraints and fragmentation of the new television environment to deliver a truly connected home experience. An implementation of the JoinIn architecture based on NAGRA products can enable: In-home content streaming and whole-home PVR capabilities with the NAGRA HomEdge gateway; Advanced companion applications with NAGRA MediaLive Multiscreen; and Comprehensive security and content protection with NAGRA MediaAccess Persistent Rights Management (PRM), NAGRA’s operator-controlled DRM solution.
MoCA, The Multimedia over Coax Alliance, announced that its Certification Program for products implementing the MoCA 2.0 specification is now available to all members. “We are open for business to begin testing MoCA 2.0,†Charles Cerino, President of MoCA declared. “We already have several manufacturers in line to begin their certifications.†MoCA 2.0 Golden Nodes, for testing of interoperability, are available from both Broadcom and Entropic.
The HomeGrid Forum kick-started 2014 at CES with a bunch of firsts for the show. In its live viewings it has been demonstrating G.hn networks with multi-vendor interoperability showing UltraHD content over G.hn PLC, seven-node networks with high traffic, and G.hn MIMO. The organisation has also highlighted G.hn’s power to avoid neighbouring network interference in demonstrations and shown the co-existence of HomePNA and G.hn on the same coax network.
Post-CES 2014 debrief:
Videonet is hosting a webcast to look at the lessons learned about the future of TV from CES this year. It is live on Friday, January 17 at 2pm GMT/3pm CET and our expert analysts are: David Mercer, VP, Principal Analyst, Digital Consumer Practice, Strategy Analytics; Jon Watts, Director and Co-founder, MTM; and Jeff Binder, General Partner, Genovation Capital, LLC. It is chaired by John Moulding, Editor, Videonet.
The webcast is free and you can also listen to it on-demand after Friday. Register here (it is free)
Further CES reading:
What is new in UHD/4K and HEVC/H.265 at CES 2014
You can find lots more CES 2014 news elsewhere on this website under the ‘News and Analysis’ and ‘Newswire’ sections.
