| Home Toys Article - Apr99 - [HTI Home Page] |
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Home Entertainment System
Control Where this gets more interesting is when a PC is added to the mix. The computer can be used as the central brain of the network. It can be used to control all entertainment equipment using a single remote control as its user interface. Each video device that you want to distribute in the home attaches by way of a MediaCaster. Each MediaCaster is set to a unique TV channel between channels 65-80. This channel selection acts as a network address. |
Steve McConaughey is the Director of Sales & Marketing for Peracom. Prior to joining Peracom, Steve was Director of Marketing for Hummingbird Communications Ltd., an enterprise software company. During his fifteen years in the computer hardware, software and networking industries, Steve has held senior level marketing, sales and business development positions at Centura Software, Oracle, Apple Computer and Hewlett Packard. Steve earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University, and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley. |
As consumers spend increasing percentages of their disposable income on entertainment and computer related equipment, an entire market is developing for networking these products in the home. For example, a Replay Networks or Tivo "digital VCR" is a cool product to have in your home. But how many people are going to buy a second one if the first one set them back $500-700. The alternative lies in networking these devices so that their usefulness can be shared throughout the home.
Distributing video in the home is nothing new. Custom installers have been buying video modulators to do this for years. But controlling the video devices tends to be more difficult. Some upscale homes have audio/video rooms that combine all entertainment sources at one point and distribute them throughout the house. The control is accomplished through wall panels mounted in the rooms where control is desired.
Peracom Networks (www.peracom.com) aims to bring that level of control to the palm of your hand, and at a price point that the average homeowner can afford. Peracom has developed technology that distributes not only audio and video throughout the home, but also computer data and infrared control signals. Peracom uses the coax cable as the backbone for this network. By segmenting the coax bandwidth, Peracom is able to take advantage of cable that is already installed in the walls of 70 million U.S. homes. The following diagram illustrates how Peracom segments the coax bandwidth:
Depending on the grade of coax cable (RG59 vs. RG6U) used in the home, there is between 600 and 1000 MHz of available bandwidth. The 5-55 MHz band is used by cable companies to deliver Internet access over cable. The 55-800 MHz band is where cable companies deliver TV channels 2-125. Below 5 MHz is considered too noisy to be used. This is where Peracom salvages unused bandwidth. The 0-2.5 MHz band is used for PC to PC communications, e.g. file and peripheral sharing, Internet access sharing and multi-user gaming. The 2.5-5 MHz band is dedicated to infrared traffic. By modulating infrared signals onto a 3 MHz carrier frequency in this band, Peracom is able to transmit the signals, from an ordinary VCR remote control, through hundreds of feet of coax cable to a VCR located in a distant room. By modulating the audio/video from that VCR to a "personal channel" (channel 65-80) the user is able to not only view the VCR from a distant room, but also control it. The components to make this happen are called Casters. There are MediaCasters, which attach to video devices, InfraredCasters, which attach to TVs in remote locations, and CableCasters which mix distributed video with video coming from the cable company or an outside antenna. A simple configuration for being able to view and control the audio/video from a satellite receiver in a separate room looks like the following diagram:
In this scenario, the DSS remote control can be used in the second room to control the DSS receiver. Infrared is picked up by the InfraredCaster, modulated to the 2.5-5 MHz band and transmitted over the coax cable. The infrared signals are received by the infrared emitter attached to the MediaCaster and transmitted to the DSS receiver. Thus, from any room, entertainment equipment can be viewed and controlled using the same remote controls that ship with the equipment.
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A PC can be added to the network using a PC Caster. The PC Caster not only puts the screen of the PC on every TV, it also allows data transmission from the PC over the coax network. Data transmission can include infrared signals. By adding a universal lookup table of infrared codes to the PC, the PC now has the capability of sending infrared control signals to any device on the network via the MediaCasters attached to those devices. The final system provides the capability to walk from room to room and, using a single remote control, be able to view and control every piece of computer or entertainment equipment in the home.
The initial components of this system will be available in the summer of 1999. Since this solution requires no new or custom wiring, the total cost is in the hundreds of dollars, rather than in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. More information can be found at the Peracom website at www.peracom.com, or by calling 919-379-2700.
