News

Battle for the Digital Living Room Commences in San Francisco Area (18/2/2005)

Inaugural Executive Summit Addresses the Technologies and Services Competing to Transform the Living Room into a Digital Hub

iHollywood Forum, Inc. today announced the speaker lineup and agenda for THE DIGITAL LIVING ROOM(R) and Venture Forum, the definitive conference March 7-8, 2005, event at the San Francisco Airport Crowne Plaza Hotel (Foster City). This thought-leader summit will feature the executives, journalists and analysts defining consumers' digital lives, including: Wall Street Journal Personal Technology Columnist Walter Mossberg, Real Networks Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser, Sony Digital Entertainment President and Sony Pictures Entertainment Vice Chairman Yair Landau and many others.

"This is the year the Digital Living Room becomes a reality," said iHollywood Forum CEO and Founder Michael Stroud. "Media centers, broadband wireless connections, digital music and video, HDTV -- all are available and affordable. Venture capital is flowing. I'm thrilled that the leaders in this new consumer revolution will be speaking at our conference to address the battle among PC makers, Baby Bells, cable operators, consumer electronics companies and software companies for control of the digital living room."

The Digital Living Room will explore the changes rocking consumer electronics, entertainment and communications, and the implications for how consumers listen to music, watch movies and television, play games, communicate and access media. The conference will launch with a keynote by the Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg about trends in the digital living room, followed by a fireside chat between Walt Mossberg, Rob Glaser and Yair Landau.

Other sessions at the conference include:

-- The PC/TV connection -- Protecting digital rights in a world of multiple devices -- The rise of consumer Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) -- Personal video recorders: into the mainstream -- HDTV: what's on next -- Scramble for the set-top -- Reinventing music -- Transforming consumer experiences of digital imaging and video -- Untangling the home network -- The unwired living room -- Killer apps and gadgets -- I want my IPTV! -- Next-gen games -- Any video, anywhere

Sessions will be moderated by some of the nation's top technology journalists, including: Wall Street Journal Columnists Walter Mossberg and Lee Gomes, CNET Editor-in-Chief Pat Houston, PC Magazine Editor-in-Chief Michael Miller, PC World Editor-in-Chief Harry McCracken, Always On Network Founder and Editor Tony Perkins, USA Today Technology Reporter Jefferson Graham, Los Angeles Times Technology Reporter Jon Healey, Wired Magazine Products Editor Robert Capps and San Jose Mercury News Staff Writer Dean Takahashi.

Panels will also include insights from top analysts, including: Gartner Group Vice President Van Baker, Enderle Group Principal Rob Enderle, Parks Associates VP and Principal Analyst Kurt Scherf and Jupiter Research Director Julie Ask.

www.digitallivingroom.com