The new normal

Life

When Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini launched the company’s new technology brand Viiv (pronounced like five) at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, he said that the new platform would create what he described as the “new normal” for the consumer. This is the idea of the home user being able to download content straight to the TV over broadband. When I had some time to digest Otellini’s grandiose vision for an Intel-powered digital home, I wanted to dig a little and find what the real significance of Intel new marketing direction really was.
 

Intel leaps ahead

Fundamentally, Intel had made a massive shift from one of the world’s most popular logos – “Intel Inside” and the idea of PC processors getting faster and cheaper, to a broader technology solution that will serve what Intel understand to be “the digital home”.
 

Built on broadband

The digital home is going to be built on faster broadband and the services that it will allow to flourish including music and video on demand to be sourced from anywhere in the world. It is also going to be built on efficient and robust hardware and software. Microsoft has already launched a media-tailored version of its Windows XP operating system in the first of Media Center Edition and now Intel is pulling its weight by creating a hardware proposition that will create media centre boxes that use less power, perform faster, come in slicker VCR-style designs and switch on and off rather than having to boot up as in the case of a traditional PC.
 

What’s in Viiv

I spoke to Chris Hogg, a spokesperson for Intel and he gave me a detailed description of the technology that goes to make up Viiv. The first component should be a Pentium D or Dual Core processor which has the advantage of lower power consumption, the second should be an Intel Express chipset from the 945, 955 or 975 series and the third should be an Intel wireless module that allows for integrated wireless networking support within the device.

When Intel sells the Viiv package to PC and digital appliance builders, it also insists that they include support for high definition TV, 5.1 surround sound and Gigabit Ethernet networking for fast video transfer over a home network. The other stipulation is on the software side and it is that all Viiv home entertainment boxes come with Microsoft’s Media Center installed.
 

Digital home takes off

I haven’t seen a sample of a Viiv product as of yet but I think it could be the catalyst for a Media Center-driven digital home. With a plethora of different types of Viiv boxes expected to be made available, expect Intel technology to show up in LCD TVs, set-top box PCs and traditional-style beige boxes that reside in the bedroom but which can transfer videos, music and photos to the TV or the Hi-Fi downstairs via Viiv-compatible digital media adapters. Microsoft calls these media extenders and the best example out there today is its Xbox 360 games console. Expect all of the major networking companies to launch these Viiv adapters through the year.
 

Content is king

I strongly believe that content will make or break this Intel/Microsoft vision of the digital home and already Intel is trying to address this by investing in a new movie on demand venture called Clickstar which is the brainchild of Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman. Yahoo and Google, of course, are also making early moves into the video on demand market. In the UK, the BBC is making its programme archive available through its Interactive Media Player. Eros has made thousands of Bollywood movies available to the ethnic Indian community there as well.

Locally, all we have seen so far is Smart Telecom and Magnet Network’s Sky By Wire broadband service which delivers BSkyB pay per view digital channels over these internet service providers’ IP network. We still wait to see if RTE will make such content available. Colin McHale, Ireland’s country manager for Intel in Ireland told me that Intel’s strategy is “to bed in the content model internationally and then bring it to local content partners to show how it works and that it does work.”

I, for one, hope that the national broadcaster can show some vision and invest in the development of broadband-deliverable video content right now. Certainly, Intel, Microsoft and the ISPs have now put the technology platform in place.

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