Solving the digital device dilemma

The right device, coupled with the right business model, is still to be determined. At least in today's market, price remains the biggest impediment to the digital living room. Apple's Jobs may be right that the economy is relegating it to “just a hobby” today, but the possibilities that all-in-one devices enable for a connected home could make it table stakes in the future.

“This isn't something that suddenly we'll wake up in the morning and there's this new device we all have to have,” Kocho said. “It's a steady progression. …What all of us is after is not a revolution — it's evolution.”

• ATIS found more than 30 different groups focused on home networking. Here are a few:

  Digital Living Network Alliance
  DLNA began in 2003 when a group of consumer electronics manufacturers came together to find ways of helping consumers more easily connect digital devices in their homes so that content could be enjoyed from any electronic device, from any location in the home and beyond. DLNA issued the Home Networked Device Interoperability Guidelines v1.5 in March 2006, and expanded in October 2006. DLNA offers its own certification programs and conducts its own plugfests.

• Universal Plug and Play Forum
  The UPnP Forum, formed in 1999, developed a set of computer network protocols and continues to define and publish UPnP device control protocols. The UPnP architecture offers pervasive peer-to-peer network connectivity of PCs, intelligent appliances and wireless devices. The UPnP Implementers Corporation offers certification for this standard.

• Advanced Metering Infrastructure
  enables collection of data and analysis of energy usage and includes hardware, software and communications protocols for a two-way communications network linking electricity meters, gas meters and water meters.

• Internet Home Alliance
  Founded in 2000 by Cisco and 10 other companies, this alliance promoted consumer education about the benefits of a networked home. Its programs have included the Home Integrator Initiative to promote the need for and training of home technology integrators who install connected home products and services, as well as a home installer certification process.