News

Broadcom to Showcase a DLNA-Enabled Connected Home at CES 2009 (30/12/2008)

Home Connectivity Leader Drives the Transition to a Seamless DLNA-Connected Home Environment for Easy Digital Media Sharing Between Consumer Electronics Devices, Mobile Handsets, Set-Top Boxes and PCs

Broadcom Corporation , a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that it will showcase a Digital Living Network Alliance(SM) (DLNA(R))-enabled connected home at CES 2009. The demonstration will allow users to share and access digital media easily across a variety of wired and wireless connectivity technologies, such as MoCA(R), Wi-Fi(R) and Ethernet, and will illustrate how consumers can easily share and stream digital content (including DVR recordings, music, photos and videos) between consumer electronics (CE) devices, mobile handsets, set-top boxes (STBs) and personal computers (PCs) anywhere throughout their homes.

Many homes have wired (MoCA (coax) or Ethernet) or wireless (Wi-Fi) networks already installed, but by themselves, these networks do not facilitate the easy sharing of content between connected devices. With DLNA technology, consumers can locate digital content anywhere on their home network and effortlessly move or stream this content between connected devices. Broadcom's compliance with the open-standard DLNA Interoperability Guidelines allows manufacturers to develop a wide range of interoperable devices that enable consumers to easily move content around the home so that they can enjoy the content from any device or location. Examples include watching DVR recordings anywhere in the home or on a mobile handset, streaming photos from a mobile handset onto a digital TV, sending photos from a mobile handset to a printer, viewing stored photos on a digital TV or listening to stored MP3 music files stored on a PC through a home stereo system.

Broadcom is driving DLNA support into a wide range of its system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions for CE devices, mobile handsets, STBs and PCs. Integrating Broadcom(R) SoCs with networking technology and powerful applications processors helps to enable manufacturers to achieve DLNA certification with cost effective single-chip solutions. Manufacturers can then highly differentiate their products with a wide range of applications and services that the DLNA-connected home enables. Service providers will benefit by being able to offer customers advanced applications such as "DVR-anywhere," connected TV services, and easy management of user-generated content via the home network that will greatly enhance the customer's entertainment experience.

"As we continue our leadership in home connectivity, Broadcom is ideally positioned to drive and enable the transition to a DLNA-connected ecosystem that will simplify implementation for consumer electronics manufacturers and service providers," said Dan Marotta, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group. "With our ongoing commitment and significant contribution to DLNA as a technology component provider, we are enabling a host of DLNA Certified(TM) devices including set-top boxes, digital televisions, media gateways, home gateways/routers, Blu-ray Disc(R) players and mobile devices that will change the way consumers interact and share content in the next generation digital home." With a goal of ensuring interoperability in home networks, DLNA has the support of approximately 250 companies including CE, computer and mobile device manufacturers, service providers, and component and software developers. As of November 2008, DLNA had certified more than 3,100 DLNA- enabled products from 36 different manufacturers.

"Broadcom is helping to drive the adoption of DLNA technology at the component level to enable manufacturers to easily develop the products necessary to realize the next generation connected home vision," said Scott Smyers, Chairman of DLNA.

www.broadcom.com