The rise of home entertainment systems

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Description:

Integrated home entertainment systems "home automation" provide value simply by the amount of convenience it will introduce in our lives. The conveniences that a home entertainment system can provide are too plentiful to count; from enhanced lighting controls, to easier climate controls, to centrally served music, to online gaming, to equipment that appears or disappears at the touch of a button, owning a home entertainment system can really help you relax.

Enablers:

  • The need for a Peace of Mind
  • Ease of use
  • Windows XP Media Center & Extender for Xbox
  • WiFi
  • Blue tooth
  • Home Internet access
  • DVD
  • Microsoft® .NET technology

Inhibitors:

  • Mobility, people like to play games everywhere at any time.
  • Increasing customization of the game consoles
  • Increasing popularity to join a console community

Paradigms:

  • Social activities will take place in our homes in which the home entertainment system plays a central role. People come together to watch and share holiday pictures, play games or watch movies. The outside world will become less important.
  • There will be no desire to go out to socialise.
  • Traditional brick and mortar stores such as cinemas, music stores and Game Halls will start to close down.

Experts:

Bill Gates - 'computainment' or the integration of PCs and home entertainment

Timing:

1930 - AM radio receiver
1945 - after World War II, “Standard” Broadcasting, Wired Radio, and Short-wave
1948 - beginning of television sales
1950 - The Introduction of FM Service
1970 - the majority of FM stations broadcast in stereo
1972 - Philips Video Compact Cassette
1976 - VHS Video tape in a large cassette format introduced by both JVC and Panasonic which became the standard
1979 - V2000 videorecorder
1980 - 138 countries had television service, and it was estimated that some 400 million receivers were in use around the world
1996 - first DVD players and discs were available in Japan

Clearly broadcasting and consumer electronics technologies are of great importance. New technologies such as the audio and video tape recorder have revolutionized the way radio and television stations operate. New broadcast services such as FM radio, television, cable, and satellite TV have extended and enhanced older media, creating huge new industries. In many countries today, the electronic media are a major conduit through which individuals experience and understand the world around them.

As the 20th century draws to a close, even more recent innovations promise to raise some of the same issues seen in the past and introduce new ones. The impact of video games, an important commercial product only in the last twenty years, has not yet been fully evaluated. Computer-based technologies, including the internet, seem poised to become the major sources of home entertainment. Yet some of the problems of standards, equitable access, and regulation that surfaced in the history of earlier devices remain unresolved. It seems clear that the personal computer and related technologies represent a continuation-in-part of earlier systems of electronic entertainment, while presenting new opportunities and problems for engineers and the general public.

Web Resources:

Windows XP Media Center
[http://www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/research_guides/entertainment/toc.html A History of Electronic Entertainment Since 1945]
Bill Gates Introduces Home Technology That Rocks


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