CBS to Use Bluetooth to Beam TV Clips to Passersby
Today's Show:
We do our annual Fall TV season preview and we prognosticate a bit on the future of Home Theater five to ten years out.
Fall TV Preview
CBS:
Monday: The Class (half hour sit-com)
Tuesday: Smith (Hour drama)
Wednesday: Jericho (hour drama)
Thursday: Shark (hour drama)
NBC:
Monday: Heroes (hour drama) and Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (hour drama)
Tuesday: Friday Night Lights (hour drama)
Wednesday: 20 Good Years (half hour sit-com) and 30 Rock (half hour sit-com) and Kidnapped (hour drama)
ABC:
Tuesday: The Knights of Prosperity (half hour sit-com) and Help Me Help You (half hour sit-com)
Wednesday: The Nine (hour drama)
Thursday: Ugly Betty (hour comedy) and Six Degrees (hour drama)
Friday: Men in Trees (hour drama)
Fox:
Monday: Vanished (hour drama)
Tuesday: Standoff (hour drama)
Wednesday: Justice (hour drama)
Thursday: Till Death (half hour sit-com) and Happy Hour (half hour sit-com)
CW:
Monday: Runaway (hour drama)
Sunday: The Game (half hour sit-com)
Braden's Picks:
New:
Smith and Shark on CBS
The Nine on ABC
Standoff and Justice on Fox
Old:
NCIS, The Unit, Numbers and Without A Trace on CBS
The Office on NBC
Of course, 24 on Fox in the Winter
Ara's Picks:
New:
Jericho on CBS
Friday Night Lights on NBC
Six Degrees on ABC
Old:
Two and Half Men, How I met your Mother, NCIS, The Unit, Numbers, all CSIs, Ghost Whisperer, Survivor and Criminal Minds on CBS
According to Jim, Lost on ABC (this year they will air 7 episodes in the fall and the remaining 15 in the spring)
24, Bones, House, and American Idol on Fox
Reba on CW
Future of Home Theater from our perspectives:
Braden
Five years from now Home Theater won't look drastically different
than it does now, unless they can get all the promises of wireless
technologies working. In five years people still won't have Cat5 in
every room, much less Cat6.
They'll want to network everything, but a dedicated wire won't work, so
MoCA or Wireless will need to step in to make it happen.
The early adopter in Five years will be running everything
wirelessly. All of the devices will be connected in a network and will
be individually addressable, including the speakers. The TV (or
projector) will once again become the center/hub of the home theater,
acting as the controller for all the remote devices. It will present a
list of everything it discovers and allow you to map which signals go
where. It will also allow you to bring up the native interface of each
device to tune it correctly.
Here's how it will work. You'll plug in a new device, then do
a Bluetooth style "pairing" to keep the home theater network secure.
Once the device has been paired, you'll give it a name. If it's a DVD
player, you'll tell it to output video to the TV and sound to the
receiver. If it's a speaker, you'll tell the receiver to send a
particular channel of audio to it. Every device (including speakers)
will need power - of some sort.
Devices will know much more
about each other and remotes will configure themselves. When you add
the DVD in the above example, the remote would be automatically
re-configure to add a new "Watch {whatever you named the DVD player}
mode. The remote could discover from the DVD player what options were
available and automatically display them. The remote would be, of
course, another device in the network.
The Early adopter's video will all be streamed across a
broadband network. This will allow instant access to movies and
replays of special events. They will be able to "subscribe" to
whatever content they want, as well as "browse" what's currently
available and watch it - even start from the beginning of the show if
they're tuning in late.
Ara
The future is really all about convergence and home distribution. You
say you can do that today. Well you are correct. We do that every day
in our homes today but we had to put pieces together. We had to string
cables or learn how to configure wireless protocols and program
remotes. The future is about setting up your home with plug and play
ease. The key to our system is the base station. It would basically be
a computer and receiver all in one. The device would hide all aspects
of being a computer. It would have a front panel control similar to
your current receiver but it would have a very easy to use GUI that
would be accessible on your TV or over the web via the built in web
server.
Everything will be connected via Cat 5 or Cat6
Cables and run on a Gigabit or 10 Gigabit Ethernet Network. 10GbE is the most
recent (as of 2006) and fastest of the Ethernet standards. That's not
to say wireless won't be possible at these rates but nothing beats hard
wired networks at this time. So into this network you will plug all
your TVs, entertainment nodes, and Computers. All devices will go out
and find each other and then exchange information about control.
Computers will be scanned for content and the base station will store
all this information. All remote controls will be set up by a web page
asking you to define activities like: "Watch DVD", "Watch TV", "Listen
to Music" and so on. The set up will be as simple answering questions
about how you want to watch or listen to your content.
The remotes will automatically switch configurations when they enter a
new zone. No need to select bed room or family room. This is done just
by walking into the room. The remotes will work on the 802.11n network
so they will also have the program guide and recorded program list on
the remote screen. You will also be able to select music right off the
remote so there will be no need to turn on the TV to make your
selection. The songs id3 tags and album art will be on the screen. The
remotes will have the ability to preview TV channels, DVDs and recorded
programs before routing to a display.
Speakers can be installed with a typical hardwired setup that
is what we all use today. But there will be an option to use an 802.11n
network if there is a power source near the speakers. In the hardwired
case each zone will need to be connected to the entertainment node to
get the audio.
All calibration will be automatic. Each source device will
have embedded test patterns that will be output to display devices. In
the video stream will be the actual values being output. These will be
measured by the display devices at the output. If they do not match the
display's output will be adjusted. Each device's settings will be
stored and used when it is providing video to the display device. Audio
will require a wireless microphone to be put at the viewing area and
the sound pressure settings will automatically adjusted. So will
surround delays. All the settings will be able to be overridden by the
user if more control is desired.
You will have one spot in the home that needs to be wired to
the cable or satellite company. Each entertainment node will be able to
watch live TV or recorded programs. The base station will come with a
massive hard drive that will store all your DVDs and mp3s. Each setup
will have the ability to send its content to a computer or another home
network via the Internet with proper authorization. You will be able to
schedule programs for recording as well as checking status of your
system all over the internet.
The main improvement to your life will be the ease of
installation. You connect the local components to each base
station/entertainment node with Cat6
cable and then connect the base station/entertainment node to the
network. The devices find each other and configure themselves.
Calibration becomes as simple as pressing a button. Remote controls do
everything without much programming at all.
