Parks Associates hosts 'Connected TV Outlook' webcast, August 26

Join Parks Associates on August 26 at 1 pm CENTRAL for the HomeGrid Forum sponsored webcast, Connected TV Outlook, and learn more about how the key technology trends behind developments in this space.

Kurt Scherf, VP, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates will present analysis and forecasts from Parks Associates examining the following:

-- Analysis on key business and technology drivers for connected TV devices
-- Consumer appetite & drivers for the purchase & use of these connected CE
-- Consumer and industry research from multiple Parks Associates surveys and market reports

This webcast is sponsored by HomeGrid Forum. HomeGrid Forum is a global, non-profit trade group promoting the International Telecommunication Union’s G.hn standardization efforts for next-generation home networking.

Click here for Thursday, August 26th webcast registration information.

Entropic and Intellon join forces - a stand against G.hn/HomeGrid?

You betcha. Following the HomeGrid Forum's announcement last Friday regarding the ITU-T's work in agreeing to key components of the G.hn specification, agreements reached within the ITU-T for G.hn, Entropic (MoCA) and Intellon (HomePlug) today announced their own collaboration to accelerate the availability of home networking solutions combining coaxial cable and powerline communications.

Some additional notes regarding P1901 and ITU 9960

I followed up with some of the principals involved in the IEEE P1901 and ITU-T G.9960 (G.hn) work last week to clarify a few points. These requests followed a briefing with the folks with MoCA, who have grievances about the ITU process and the decision that was reached in December to approve the foundation document. Here are some of the primary issues that the MoCA folks wanted to air:
1. They note that this is still an uncompleted specification, noting that no MAC agreement has been reached (and contesting the notion that the PHY is 100% solid). For the record, the ITU and the HomeGrid Forum have made note of the need to finalize the MAC specification. This could be accomplished with a companion spec for a media access controller that could be implemented in firmware is expected to be complete as early as September 2009. Thanks to Rick Merritt at The EE Times for that good explanation.
2. The MoCA folks feel that they were largely shut out of negotations in the ITU process, arguing that they had put forth a recommendation to make the ITU backward-compatible to MoCA. Contacts at DS2 and CopperGate note that the ITU specification is not backward-compatible with any current "no-new-wires" standard, and trying to achieve this and please everyone would have resulted in a much slower process. They indicate that it will be up to individual semiconductor companies to build in backwards compatibility.

Were their politics involved in this process? Undoubtedly. I do understand the sense of urgency under which both the IEEE and ITU have been working. It would appear that standardizing on a single powerline solution was really the critical component of the standards process, as this standards mess has held up market development for far too many years. Although MoCA supporters may not like feeling shut out of the development process, one explanation I got from someone privy to the ITU process was simple but probably a critical factor. He indicates that - for the European market in particular - coax solutions will not have the same critical role to play as powerline. Therefore, a solution like MoCA - which is well suited to the U.S. cable industry - simply wasn't going to be considered in the final process.

MoCA is now part of DLNA Device Interoperability Standards

The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) announced today that it will be incorporated into the Digital Living Network Alliance's (DLNA) next version of its Networked Device Interoperability Guidelines, scheduled to be released in early 2009. MoCA joins Wi-Fi and Ethernet as the only LAN technology standards approved for inclusion in the DLNA Interoperability Guidelines. With all of the hubub about G.hn and the ITU's approval of the PHY and architecture portions of the ITU-T G.hn specification, I wonder if DLNA will look at this spec anytime soon?