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Bringing Harmony to the Digital Home

Techstination feature for Tuesday, July 1, 2003

Bringing harmony to the digital home. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. With wireless networks invading more and more households... and all kinds of entertainment going digital... there are new devices arriving to allow that content to be shared around the house. They allow you, for instance, to see digital photos stored on your computer... on your TV. Or listen to digital music from your PC... on your stereo system. The question is... will these wireless or wired gadgets from different manufacturers... work together? The good news is... there is hope. Seventeen leading consumer electronics, computer and mobile companies have announced the formation of a new organization to set standards. Intel's consumer education manager Ralph Bond...

"The Digital Home Working Group, which is a very exciting moment in the history of personal computing and consumer electronics, is aimed at breaking down what... I'll call it the Berlin Wall that currently separates our personal computers and computing devices from our consumer electronics products in the home like our television sets, our home theatres, DVD players and so forth."

The group's goal is to deliver guidelines for manufacturers to adhere to in making products within the next 12 months. The idea...

"I can go into any store and buy a radio tuner from one company, a pair of speakers from somebody else, a CD player from yet another company... know that that I can go home and plug these things together and they're just going to work. We want to attain that same kind of interoperability."

There are technical obstacles... and differing opinions about which standards should prevail... but at least the Digital Home Working Group is a start. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.