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| EMagazine Volume 4 Issue 5 October 1999 |
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Toys Article - October99 - [HTI Home Page] |
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| What you really want in Broadband Land is simplicity and instant access - without the hassles of browsers, mice, and menus. Hit a button. Hear the music. You don't really care if it's on a CD, hard drive, or stored at MP3.com. It's there. You're here. Something needs to know how to connect the dots. Naturally. Easily. | |
The borders of our electronic lifestyles are about to change. The 56K modem opened up the Web for all of us, but the new broadband technology (1.5-5 MB bandwidth) will raise the floodgates, creating entirely new ways to use the Net in our personal lives. It's time to dive into an Internet that is always on, always full, always ready to pump massive amounts of information, automation, and entertainment wherever you are. This is the really big deal of the century, and the big river of Internet media is forming right here and now.
Those of us blessed with broadband Internet access at the office already have a taste of the broadband life. We laugh at those "download time = 2 hours" estimates as we snap up games, MP3 music, and MPEG movies in a few clicks of time. That's why ZIP discs are so popular-we need a bunch to take all that stuff home from the office!
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News flash - people are doing that now, big time. In fact, analysts expect that over 16 million homes will go broadband by 2002. The big dogs right now are cable modems (download a 10 MB file in 1.3 minutes!) and DSL (gets the same file 2.5 minutes, but still real hot). Access to those services is limited to the few areas that have already upgraded their infrastructure-but coverage is growing at a rapid pace. Or you can go wireless - receiving a high-speed link from satellite (about 3.3 minutes load time), while sending data out over a conventional 56K modem.
…A Land of New Dimensions
Broadband Internet is a bigger deal than just faster access. It's a very big
pipeline, and it's always on. You don't have to ping the ISP to have something
happen - everything on the Net is now an integral part of your home. That's
going to radically change the dimensions of your electronic lifestyle. For
example, you won't have to download MP3 files for playback - you could create
playlists that pull the music right off the Net without filling up your hard
drive. The same for movies and video broadcasts-video streams won't be
restricted to small on-screen windows. Full-screen VHS-quality video is possible
now - opening the door to enjoying movies on demand, live concerts, and
full-motion video conferencing and distance learning. And it's not too hard to
imagine DVD - quality media in the near future-the pipe is there, the rest is
chips and software.
If broadband media is going to be that good, why confine it to a PC? If you liked the Star Wars prequel in a 56K video window, you'll love 1MB streams of Episode 2 on your home theater's 70-inch screen. If you want to listen to Weird Al's new Saga Samba in your living room, why should you need to boot up your laptop to find it?
…A Land of Panja PC-Free Entertainment
What you really want in Broadband Land is simplicity and instant access -
without the hassles of browsers, mice, and menus. Hit a button. Hear the music.
You don't really care if it's on a CD, hard drive, or stored at MP3.com. It's
there. You're here. Something needs to know how to connect the dots. Naturally.
Easily.
That's the idea behind the Panja 1000 Internet Home Entertainment Gateway. Arriving around the end of the year, the Panja 1000 system consists of three main elements - a wireless touch panel, system/Internet controllers, and Panja services such as Broadband Blast™ and PanjaCast™.
Who is Panja? They're the people from the melding of AMX and PHAST companies - you've known them for years as the world leaders in transforming the complex stuff of electronic technology into easy-to-understand and fun tools for everyday life. The Panja 1000 system is the result of all those years invested in successfully delivering real-world solutions.
ViewPoint Wireless Touch Panel
Instead of fussing with a PC and a pile of remotes, you can access
everything in your home theater and the Internet from the Panja ViewPoint touch
panel's bright 5" color or grayscale touch screen. Touch a few graphical
icons and you can play a DVD, listen to a CD, tune in to KRLD, or drive media
from whatever_it_may_be.com. Or glance at the latest weather or traffic report.
Read your email. Lift the ViewPoint off its docking station and do whatever you
like, wherever you want to be in your home. And ViewPoint's 2-way wireless
technology allows the panel to automatically update itself with new data and
services.
System/Internet Controllers
One or more "black boxes" will sit in the background and do all
the behind-the-scenes grunt work that makes everything you do appear so simple.
- Theater Controller
The main controller has 8 IR ports to take control of your typical home theater gear, and RS-232 data ports to access advanced components such as DSS receivers and multi-disc CD changers. - Ethernet Port
A 100/10baseT port on the Theater Controller links the system to your home network, so that your Panja 1000 system and PCs can share the same Internet broadband connection. - Digital Media Player
This component has its own Ethernet port and handles all the video and audio decoding-passing the media on to the TV, projector and sound system. - Broadband Blast™
With Panja's Broadband Blast subscription service, you won't have to surf the Net with your PC to find your favorite media. Just pick up your ViewPoint touch panel, touch the title or channel you want for Internet audio or video and sit back and enjoy. - PanjaCast™
Panja's patent-pending PanjaCast subscription service crunches and filters Internet content, and reformats and routes the information for use in your IP home and lifestyle. That means we can translate the Internet into real-life benefits, including:- Displaying the latest email, news, weather, traffic, stock reports and other Internet-driven data right on your touch panel
- Sending the same info to your cell phone, wireless PDA, or other data-capable resource, reformatting the data so it suits the source
- Linking your cell phone to your home so you can activate security and lights, or get a "Fix me" email from your broken water heater
- Automatically create touch panel icons that can access virtual media, broadcast channels and playlists
- Managing the transfer of a digital stream from the Internet to your TV
- Tracking locations of resources, so it knows if a video title can be found at your favorite Internet movie channel or in your home's multi-disc DVD player
- Filtering access between your personal system and trusted Internet services Home Networking
- Optional Panja components will allow you to integrate more elements of your electronic home using industry-standard HomePNA and HomeRF communication.
Stay tuned to the Panja channel at www.panja.com . Broadband Internet will be the new electronic homeland for many in the near future, and Panja is making it a much more fun and simpler place to live.
