News

CONNECTIONS: The Digital Home Conference and Showcase Wraps With an Eye Toward Future Challenges in the Digital Living Markets (24/5/2005)

CONNECTIONS(TM): The Digital Home Conference and Showcase, produced by Parks Associates in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association, took place May 11-13, 2005, in Burlingame, Calif., and provided a comprehensive analysis of current and future "Digital Living" technologies to 700 executives and over 150 companies.

The CONNECTIONS(TM) speakers focused on the critical issues impacting the development of technologies and services for the digital home industries. Topic tracks included digital entertainment and multimedia applications; home networking and residential gateways; consumer mobility and device/content portability; applications, services, and consumer value; and home management: controls, security, and health.

Throughout the event, research and analysis from Parks Associates provided insights into the future of these markets. According to Parks Associates, by 2009, more than 40 million U.S. households will have a data network, and more than 20 million of these data networks will originate from an ISP.

Many challenges still exist as these markets evolve, and the many industry leaders and executives in attendance addressed these issues throughout CONNECTIONS(TM). For example, data network OEM vendors and retailers report up to 20% return rates on home networking equipment. Furthermore, wireless networks are still grappling with security issues that hamper their functionality and wider deployment. In general, the industry must face and resolve the unique challenges in moving the data network beyond shared broadband to greater functionality. To do so, home networks must have sufficient coverage and quality-of-service (QoS) to support next-generation services and applications such as voice and multimedia distribution.

"The companies supporting home networking and the digital lifestyle have much success upon which to build for the next stages of connectivity and content," said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst for Parks Associates. "We are so pleased that CONNECTIONS(TM) has become a venue at which this future planning begins to take shape."

www.connectionsconference.com