The future of home theater is going to be simplicity. Does that mean no wires?
Wireless Simplicity?
We talked a few weeks ago about what we thought home theater would look
like in 10 years, but a lot of our ideas were pretty complicated. It
looks like the future of Home Theater will be simplicity.
That's according to
this Cnet.com article.
One way to move in that direction is to eliminate cables, and
wireless USB is just around the corner.
Wireless USB will be great for computers, but the idea could easily be expanded to apply to wireless HDMI. The
Xbox360's external HD-DVD player connects via USB. There are still
significant challenges on how you get 2 devices to recognize each
other. This removes the wires, but doesn't give you "one button/one
click" simplicity.
What we need is not just a wireless replacement for how wires work today, but a much more sophisticated way for devices to communicate. Adding a new device to the theater should be so easy - even grandma could do it! To get there, we'll need a control protocol that allows devices to discover each other, query and announce functionality, and seamlessly inter-operate. That won't be easy for manufacturers, but it sure will be for consumers.
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