News

DigitalDeck Enables Entertainment Content Anytime, Anywhere in the Home; Consumer Electronics Company Develops Complete Home Media Gateway Platform (17/11/2003)

DigitalDeck, Inc. today introduced the first end-to-end entertainment platform that aggregates all the content coming into the home and intelligently distributes it over wired and/or wireless IP-based home networks. The first products enabled by the platform will be introduced this January at the 2004 International CES (Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada; January 8-11, 2004).

DigitalDeck's initial consumer package includes three elements:

- The Advanced Media Manager, running on either a stand-alone appliance or on a PC, aggregates and manages content distribution in the home.

- The DigitalDeck Media Adapter connects devices (such as cable and satellite TV receivers, DVD players, and security cameras) to the home network and brings additional Internet-based content to the television.

- The DigitalDeck unified remote control can be used anywhere in the home to control all legacy consumer electronics devices connected to the network.

DigitalDeck has also introduced a complete back-office software platform that provides: programming channel lineups for the DigitalDeck Electronic Program Guide (EPG), IR codes for control of consumers' devices, automated software and firmware updates, billing interfaces, and security for protection of content. This platform is offered both as a service and as a software suite for service providers.

With cable and satellite TV in nearly 100 million homes and with almost 24 million broadband households in North America, consumers are getting their video and music content from an increasingly diverse distribution universe. Networked home entertainment represents the true convergence of consumer electronics, computer equipment, broadband, and broadcast entertainment industries.

"DigitalDeck has built affordable and easy-to-use products that help consumers enjoy all of their entertainment content regardless of the source, regardless of which room they're in, and regardless of the time," said Erik Scheelke co-founder and president/chief technology officer. "Consumers don't care where their entertainment content comes from -- or what time it's on. We shouldn't have to go from one room to another to watch a DVD or cable TV, or move to the PC to view digital photos. We should be able to watch what we want, where we want, when we want."

DigitalDeck's patent-pending EPG puts all forms of content at the user's fingertips in a convenient guide. The EPG brings all of the content sources in the home -- satellite and cable TV, DVD, broadband Internet, security cameras and digital music services -- into a single user interface. Consumers can switch from one content source to another simply by tuning from one channel to another on the guide. And with DigitalDeck's "whole home" IP-based DVR, the consumer can enjoy full DVR functionality from any of these content sources on every TV in the home.

"We see great promise in technology that allows consumers to aggregate audio and video content and gives them control over when and where they use it," said Van Baker, vice president, consumer electronics, Gartner G2. "Today's consumer is likely to have a number of entertainment sources. With home networks increasingly common, it's only a matter of time before software and services leverage those networks to bring a wide variety of entertainment sources together. In the end, the real winners will be those companies that can get the right mix of technology partnerships, distribution channels and product features that add value to existing viewing patterns."

www.digitaldeck.com