DemoFall report: Home network technologies to watch

HomeLAN Adventures By Keith Shaw, Network World
October 03, 2005 12:06 AM ET

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We took a break from installing stuff on our home network to travel to Huntington Beach, Calif., and visit the DemoFall 2005 conference. Among the 65 companies launching never-before-seen products were some very cool home network devices and enabling technologies. Here are a few of my favorites:

Does anyone remember the Kerbango Internet Radio? If you did, then you'll want to take a look at the upcoming SoundBridge Wi-Fi Music System from Roku Labs. The device is small enough to fit onto a nightstand and act as a clock radio, but in addition to the normal AM and FM radio stations, the system will connect to Internet radio feeds or any music stored on a networked PC through its Wi-Fi connection (802.11b/g). The $399 system is expected to launch later this fall.
I'm intrigued by the folks at Pie, which plans on coming out with a desktop device and service that aims to simplify the installation and maintenance of a home network and digital home environment. When connected to a new network, the Pie device self-discovers all devices and automatically configures, repairs and updates where required. The service then continually monitors the devices and takes appropriate actions for installing updates such as patches, anti-spam updates and things of that nature. The actual device and service haven't officially launched, but the company is looking to partner with ISPs that would provide the device to home customers. With the Pie device, many users will likely become less frustrated with installing or configuring a home network, although it could reduce the number of phone calls that we often get as being associated with home networking technologies (whether that's good or bad depends on whether you're making any money by advising friends, relatives and co-workers).
Finally, we have the Streamload MediaMax service, an online media center that lets users centrally manage, share and access digital entertainment content from any Internet-connected device. Streamload has been around for a while, but they used the DemoFall show to re-launch its service, as well as add the capability for customers to upload TV shows and/or home videos to the service. The basic idea of Streamload is to provide an online area for end users to store all of their music, photos and other digital media. When the customer goes from one computer to another (leaves home and goes to work, for example), the personal media can be downloaded to the other PC. What is cool about the service is how you can upload TV shows and videos captured through a digital video recorder (such as a TiVo or other device) and then download the shows to a different computer. This appeals to the mobile traveler in me, but home network users can use the service as a way to back up data or even share files among users of the home network. A free account lets users store up to 10G bytes of files and download up to 100M bytes of files per month – a basic package that offers unlimited storage and 1G bytes of downloads per month costs $4.95 per month (the service charges more for the ability to download more files).

Read more about home networks in Network World's Home Networks section.