Before I get to my nomination for Best in Show, I would like to preface my decision with some exposition and caveats. First, as one should expect, I didn’t see everything. There was simply too much for one analyst to consume in three days. Secondly for pragmatic reasons, I focused on my areas of coverage, namely various aspects of video. And lastly I put significant value on the potential impact a product or concept could or will have on the market.
So with that said, my choice wasn’t the biggest, smallest, thinnest, sexiest, or most function laden device out there – in fact it wasn’t really a device at all. Rather my nod went to NDS and its suite of services.
Yes, ultra thin or monstrous screen sizes with staggeringly high contrast ratios, blazing refresh rates and more colors than I even knew existed are nice and perhaps evolutionary steps in display technology but they are simply that, steps. And often those items that make the biggest splash at the show (e.g. 150” PDP from Panasonic) are not primed for the general market, but rather for their respective niches. I was looking for something larger (figuratively speaking), something that could shape the way we consume our content.
Perhaps a sign of things to come and possibly better characterized as a leap rather than a step, was connectivity and networking. Quite a few companies showcased connectivity in one form or another: touting wireless integration (e.g. 802.11n), CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) over HDMI, or even intermediary devices to help facilitate networking. In comparison to CES 2007, 2008 painted a connected future that is far more tangible and less like a pipedream. So with all of this connectivity how is it that NDS rose to the top?
Despite all of this impressive technology, problems with interoperability can still plague devices. While it would be nice for every device to work out of the box, too often this isn’t the case. Naturally this speaks volumes for standardization like DLNA and yes there were signs that standardization is on the minds of many of the CE manufacturers. But it would be nice if we could become less dependent upon device compatibility, and even if we are willing to presume the hardware will work itself out in time, that still leaves a glaring hole – namely the content.
Sending personal content is nice but how about professional content? As we survey the digital media landscape we see a view marred by lawsuits and struggles for control – all the while the consumer is often left in the middle to make sense of it all. Online video is still disconnected and when we add DRM, managed copies (or lack thereof) matters only become further complicated.
NDS didn’t offer a panacea, but their full suite of products demoed at CES offered a promising glimpse of a connected future that reached beyond the CE devices.
While content security is important, too often the restrictions imposed on the end user limits the products’ appeal. In other words if a consumer rents an online movie, he/she has to determine where it will play and often on what devices. NDS, with their conditional access and DRM solution (VideoGuard), middleware (Media Highway), and NDS Unified Headend to manage CA and DRM across platforms, is positioned to bridge the gap between content/service providers and the consumer.
NDS designed the complete suite of services to be relatively device agnostic. Rather than content providers or services partnering with hardware manufacturers to offer their products NDS demonstrated a platform that keeps the DRM and CA in a memory card or USB drive. The memory card therefore can be transferred to other devices and, provided the device is capable of decoding the video, offer playback. This makes DRM far more salient to the end user and easier to manage. The control over content addresses concerns held by service and content providers alike by offering a walled garden, albeit in a more veiled approach that appeases the consumer.
NDS also demonstrated a proactive step toward both targeted and interactive adverting. By enlisting demographic information, and browsing/viewing history a connected STB could offer appropriate advertisements and additional services. For instance, in the demonstration the viewer was offered the option to schedule an appointment for a test drive following a car commercial.
NDS was also acutely aware and sensitive to the user interface, which was replicated to create a sense of continuity between devices/platforms. Whether a consumer was interacting on a mobile phone, PC or STB the UI was remarkably similar if not the same. Users, for instance, could rent and view movies for themselves or others from any of the devices. And when it came to online content and video, users were able to access said material from RSS feeds. While this is a somewhat limited solution it was a reasonable compromise considering the streamlined integration and ease of use.
Naturally there are caveats. The UI for instanced was Flash based which would likely entail box upgrades, a cost to the service provider that for the time being may not bring a reasonable ROI, as evidenced by some of the difficulties push video services have endured. But as NDS maintained they are taking a “pragmatic” approach and said unified services such as their full product suite could take two to four years before we see it in the market end to end.
As I stated up front this wasn’t the flashiest thing I saw at CES but NDS’ suite of products/services addressed some of the concerns and issues hampering the video market and due to the nature of their operations, they are positioned to make an impact on a relatively large scale.
When Michael isn’t on the road at CES, he’s contributing valuable insights and analysis to In-Stat’s Multimedia research. As an example, check out our Consumer Media and Content research online at:
CES 2008 saw demos from a number of companies offering wireless high definition (HD) video transmission, indicating that the technology should be ready for consumer adoption in 2008. It also saw the first demonstrations of HD wireless video transmission by major consumer electronics manufacturers.
Amimon provides a wireless, uncompressed HDTV transmission solution called Wireless High Definition Interface (WHDI), capable of transmitting an HDMI or component HD signal. WHDI enables whole home video connectivity, with 3 Gbps bandwidth transported in the 5GHz unlicensed spectral band. WHDI uses OFDM with MIMO technology, but it is completely proprietary – it does not use any elements of 802.11n technology. WHDI is a video modem technology that breaks the video signal down into elements of visual significance. Amimon’s algorithm insures that the inevitable errors fall on the less significant luminance and chrominance portions of the signal, so the viewer does not notice them. At CES, Amimon showed a side-by-side demo with a WHDI and a wired HDMI image, both displaying a 1080p HD video signal. Amimon currently has a two-chip solution available, with RF/BB and MAC available for $25 in quantities of hundreds of thousands. Sony demonstrated Amimon’s technology in their booth as a proof-of-concept to show it could transmit HD video wirelessly.
SiBeam also demonstrated their 60GHz WirelessHD technology. The company’s demo consisted of transporting a 1080i HD signal within a room. Their demonstration chipset included a field programmable gate array (FPGA), which limited the throughput to 1.8 Gbps. When their two chip solution begins sampling in the first quarter of this year, it will be capable of 4Gbps, enough to transmit 1080p HD video signal uncompressed. Panasonic used SiBeam’s technology in a keynote demonstration, and Panasonic said it would deliver a WirelessHD-enabled Blu-Ray player, HD camcorder and DTV in 2009.
In addition, there are a number of companies pursuing wireless video transmission via ultrawideband (UWB) chip technology, including Pulse~LINK, Radiospire and Tzero Technologies. Pulse~LINK demonstrated mixed wired and wireless video transmission around the home with four servers in four rooms all sending and receiving multiple 1080p streams. The company also announced a partnership with Westinghouse, who will embed Pulse~LINK’s CWave silicon solution in a 47” 1080p plasma digital TV in 2008. Tzero demonstrated its TZ7200 UWB chipset solution, currently available in production quantities, while Radiospire demonstrated its AirHook UWB chipset. The Airhook chipset has the bandwidth to deliver 720p or 1080i HD streams without compression, while Pulse~LINK and Tzero require JPEG2000 compression to deliver HD streams.
CES showcased a wide array of leading edge consumer electronics – In-Stat covers a wide array of leading edge consumer electronics. Check out all of In-Stat’s highly respected Multimedia research at: http://www.instat.com/descriptions/multimedia.asp
- Brian O'Rourke - Senior Analyst
, E-mail:borourke@reedbusiness.com
Similar to last year, I saw product evolutions rather than revolutionary products. More digital TV sets have a way to connect directly to the Internet to receive video. A digital photo frame reference design had 3D graphics enabling interesting transitions from one photo to the next. A new HD camcorder design will be able to capture video at 1080p60 resolutions, rather than 1080i60 or 720p60. An ATSC converter box was introduced with a hard drive and Ethernet.
Regarding the HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats, the public statement of the HD DVD group is that they will continue to sell discs and playback devices. However, a big concern the group could not answer is how many titles will now be released on HD-DVD? Right now, Paramount and Universal are sticking with HD DVD, but they could change their minds in a few weeks or months. How long will it be before the shelf space devoted to Blu-ray titles is greater than that devoted to HD-DVD titles or retailers stop carrying HD-DVD altogether? No matter what is said about continuing to offer HD-DVD products, if retailers stop buying them, Toshiba, Paramount, and Universal won’t have a choice but to shut down HD-DVD.
Toshiba lowered the price of its HD-DVD players from $200 to $150 for the HD-A3, and from $400 to $200 for the HD-A30, and $300 for the HD-A35. However, with no new products announced, it seems like they are attempting to clear out inventory. Both groups are launching promotion plans that focus on the improvements over DVD rather than battling each other. That will be the real challenge, convincing consumers that there is something better out there. Remember that, though HDTV sets have sold in large numbers, as of January 2008, there were only 14.5 million US households receiving and watching HD video.
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