FAQ
ANSWERS
It is an evolution of the idea that PCs, consumer electronic (CE), and mobile devices should work together seamlessly through the network to share digital media within a home environment. Back to top»
02: What is the Digital Home Work Group Vision/Charter?
Consumers are acquiring, viewing, and managing an increasing variety of digital media on devices in the CE, PC and mobile domains. In addition, they want to easily and conveniently enjoy this content using any electronic devices located anywhere in the home. The digital home vision will help realize this world through the goal of a seamless, interoperable network, which will deliver the applications consumers desire, while providing an opportunity for manufacturers to innovate and differentiate their products. Back to top»
03: How will the consumer benefit from the digital home?
The goal of the digital home is to provide consumers with seamless interoperability between devices over the network, regardless of vendor, resulting in an easy, out-of-the-box experience using any device. Consumers will benefit from the convenience and the flexibility associated with being able to select products from a range of different vendors. Back to top»
04: What business opportunities will this working group provide to the industry?
The value proposition to manufacturers and content providers will be to ensure that all devices designed around DHWG guidelines communicate, which opens up new ways to differentiate and expands existing product categories. The value of the digital home vision is in its ability to provide consumers with a wide range of compelling uses and experiences. This requires the availability of a broad spectrum of products across many categories. These products range from intelligent source devices such as advanced digital set-top boxes, PCs, and access platforms (i.e. residential gateways), as well as simple sink and source devices that provide media acquisition, recording, playback, rendering, storage, sourcing capabilities and content protection. Some examples of these devices include PDAs, notebook PC’s, broadcast tuners, networked storage units, CD/DVD players and recorders, TV monitors, multimedia mobile phones, stereos, home theaters, wireless monitors and game consoles as well as other video, audio and image capturing devices. Back to top»
05: What are the deliverables of the Digital Home Working Group?
The Digital Home Working Group’s digital home White Paper outlines the potential of digital home interoperability and also describes design guidelines. The digital home deliverables will cover functional components and technology issues related to implementation as well as a Certification and Logo Program to ensure adherence to DHWG guidelines and interoperability. The initial Design Guideline will focus mainly on interoperability among networked CE devices, home PCs and mobile devices for media applications involving imaging, audio and video. Back to top»
06: What future digital home deliverables will we see?
Over time, as new technology and standards become available, the Design Guideline may broaden to cover other usage areas such as home control, network communications, and more advanced entertainment services. Back to top»
07: What is the foundation for networking and interoperability in the digital home?
The IP family of protocols has been selected as the means to provide the foundation for the networking and connectivity of CE, mobile devices, and PCs in the digital home. IP is also the basic means for establishing communications among all devices on the Internet. Back to top»
08: How will media management, distribution, and control work in the digital home?
Media management and control will enable devices and applications to identify, manage, and distribute media content across the home network. UPnP Audio/Video (AV) technology addresses all of these needs and is expected to be the media management and control solution for products based on DHWG guidelines. Back to top»
The UPnP Forum is an industry initiative aimed at connectivity between stand-alone devices and PC’s from different vendors. UPnP technology will be a key standard required for an interoperable network in the digital home. On the other hand, the Internet Home Alliance, a cross-industry network of leading companies advancing the home technology market, explores new uses and conducts field trials to validate consumer needs. Both organizations are complementary to the vision of the Digital Home Working Group, which is focused on developing and promoting an interoperable network through a specific framework. Back to top»
10: How will DHWG assure interoperability between PC’s, CE devices and mobile devices?
Similar to other consortiums such as the USB Implementers Forum and the PCI Special Interest Group, the DHWG will facilitate interoperability and compatibility testing through the Certification Program, Compliance Workshops, and other means. Back to top»
DHWG welcomes new companies at the Contributor level in the DHWG. Applicants may access membership information at . Back to top»
12: How was the DHWG formed, and when will meetings take place?
Introduced in June 2003, the Digital Home Working Group is a cross-industry organization of leading consumer electronics, computing industry and mobile device companies. Founding members include Fujitsu, Gateway, HP, Intel, IBM, Kenwood, Lenovo, Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), Microsoft, NEC CustomTechnica, Nokia, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, STMicroelectronics and Thomson. The first meeting of the DHWG board of directors was held in May 2003. Annual meetings for the entire membership, as well as quarterly meetings for promoter members, are planned at this time. Exact dates and locations are determined prior to each meeting. Back to top»
13: When will actual products come onto the market from each member company?
While we cannot speak for each company, the DHWG expects to see products implementing DHWG guidelines in the second half of 2004. Back to top»
14: Will the Digital Home Guidelines be updated and how often?
Yes, DHWG expects that the guidelines will be updated when new industry standards are completed and become available for incorporation into products. It is the DHWG’s intent that products compliant with future guidelines will be interoperable with products that are compliant with previous guidelines. In addition, as standards mature for other home application areas, such as home control and more advanced entertainment services, it is quite possible that the scope of the DHWG will broaden to embrace new scenarios that incorporate such industry trends. Back to top»
15: When will the first draft of the technical guidelines be available?
Draft phase one guidelines have been submitted to the DHWG Board of Directors for review and are expected to be finalized by the first quarter in 2004. Publication of the phase one guidelines, known as HNv.1, is expected by Q2 of 2004. For 2004-2005, the design guidelines will focus on interoperability between networked entertainment and media devices for personal media use involving imaging, audio, and video. As new technology and standards become available the design guidelines may broaden to cover other uses such as home control, communications and more advanced entertainment services. (For details, see “Design guidelines scope” in the Digital Home White Paper.) Back to top»