By Ahmet Ozalp Atlas Venture Massachusetts Software Council Panel, May 20, 2005

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By Ahmet Ozalp Atlas VentureMassachusetts
Software Council Panel, May 20, 2005
Digital Home - VC Perspective
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What do the Consumer Need ?

• Video, music, pictures, information
• Not only what I want, but also what I may like
• Dont forget the long tail

Any Content
Any Time

• On demand give me control (pause, ff, rw)

• Anywhere in my home
• In my car
• In my office find me !

Any Place
Any Device

• TV, PC, cell phone, PDA, game box

• Everything plug and play interoperability no
  issue
• Easy and intuitive to use
• Let me be involved and influence

Simple, Intuitive, Interactive
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Networked Home Connectivity Layer

• Content Distribution
• IP remains the standard for the network layer
• Lower layers will be a hybrid
• Wifi 802.11 a,b,g, -gt e,n wireless
• 802.15.3 wireless with QoS
• Ethernet cat5
• MOCA coax
• HomePlug power lines
• HomePNA phone-lines
• Content Transfer/Cable Replacement
• UWB wireless USB (digital cameras, portable
  media players)

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Networked Home Brains of the Network

• PC MS Windows Media Center
• Looks strong
• UPnP and network operation systems
• Complementary products applications from startups
• STB
• Historically owned by SA and MOT
• Evolving
• PVR, Network Enabled DVD/PVR, DVD Burner
• Open platform Opportunity for new players and
  for software applications
• CE Entertainment Center
• Adding networked music
• Still good networked video solutions are lacking
• Interoperability
• Networked Storage for Content
• Connected home storage devices
• Web based storage service
• User Interface / Control Devices
• Inexpensive wireless control units with easy to
  use GUI and Internet connectivity

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Access TechnologiesBandwidth and Quality of
Service (QoS)

• Cable
• DOCSIS 1.1 and 2.0 overall quite successful
• DOCSIS 3.0 in the works
• Best QoS architecture with PCMM Well positioned
  for triple-play (Data, Voice, Video)
• Good downstream story Poor upstream capacity !
• DSL
• ADSL and VDSL barely enough to do switched video
  in SDTV Video remains challenging for triple
  play
• QoS similar to PCMM is missing
• Needs to evolve into FTTC to do IPTV
• FTTP, FTTC
• Broadband Nirvana high symmetrical bandwidth
  triple play home broadcast
• Costly, but Telcos have no other option
  happening faster than we thought
• PON is the right technology
• Wireless
• 802.11 (WIFI)as access technology Good enough
  for data, voice and video suspect
• 802.16 (WIMAX) Mobility the key advantage
  (802.16a), but still a few years away
• 3G Cellular EVDO great for mobility and data
  HSDPA even more bandwidth but limited
  availability
• Cost of service will drive adoption 3G could
  make Wifi obsolete outside of the home
• Portable, connected devices will have to support
  multiple technologies

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Content over IP

• The sky is the limit for IP based applications
  and services as access bottleneck gets resolved
• IPTV, Video over IP Not just TelcoTV
• Content owners and aggregators
• Search engines and portals (Yahoo, Google)
• Home grown content
• Cable or DSL turning into dumb pipes ?
• Music
• Games
• Long tail content
• Ethnic content, niche interest areas, social
  networking
• Many technical challenges and therefore
  opportunities
• DRM issues
• Lots of large files to be stored, managed and
  searched in the digital home
• Opportunities for network based storage and
  management services
• VoIP, Video Conferencing, IM
• Cable and Satellite Operators have to react
• TV experience has to evolve into the
  Internet-like experience
• Interactive, long tail content
• Searchable and easy to navigate content beyond
  the current VoD

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Convergence

• Device Convergence
• Wireless phones, digital camera, PDA, TV Remote
• PC, Media Center, STB, Access Modem, Wifi
• Opportunity for programmable chips to do a
  variety of protocols and applications low cost,
  low power
• Service/Network Convergence
• Cable MSOs adding wireless service
• Telcos adding TV service
• Wireless Operators adding TV/Video services
• Many opportunities in the network
• traditional players lack expertise or cant
  access it because of organizational boundaries -gt
  opportunities for start-ups
• example Delivering cellular calls over broadband
  and Wifi

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3G Wireless

• 3G handset - a major platform for digital home
  and outside
• Voice
• Data (SMS, MMS, email)
• Camera (pictures, video)
• Music
• Location based services (physical location)
• 3G environments are becoming more and more open
  and standards based
• BREW, Java, Symbian
• Third party software (games and productivity
  tools)
• ASP models for interesting services service
  provider just a
• Integration with Internet and TV opens up many
  new application opportunities
• Virtual location based services (based on the
  TV ch. you are watching)

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Components for Devices in Digital Home

• New Display Technologies
• Still a very expensive piece of any gadget
• Big consumer of power for portable devices
• Programmable chips or purpose build ASICs
• Processing of content/data (video, music etc)
• Network processors digital home looks more and
  more like a corporate network
• Connectivity (protocols Wifi, 3G, UWB etc)
• Battery Technologies
• Fuel cells
• New battery technologies

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Others

• Home automation and security
• Car mini digital home
• Solid state or LED based lighting
• Home robots
• Others?