(15 December 2005 4:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Charter Communications, JVC, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc., NBC Universal, Samsung and Sun Microsystems have come together to form HANA, the High Definition Audio Video Network Alliance.

HANA members are working together to create a standards-based design guideline for secure high definition AV networks that will help advance commercial deployment of products and services and will enhance the consumer HD entertainment experience.

In addition to the founding members, ARM, Freescale Semiconductor and Pulse~Link have joined HANA as contributing members.

"Since HANA is a cross-industry effort with members from each of the impacted HD industries, we can achieve the ‘win-win’ necessary to commercialize HD networks. HANA is a milestone among industry alliances because we are starting in the living room, not the home office,” said HANA president Dr Heemin Kwon.

HANA’s mission is to create industry design guidelines, utilizing existing technology and specifications that will help enable consumers to:

• View, pause and record 5+ HD channels simultaneously without compromising service quality;
• View, pause and record HD anywhere in the home with just one set top box;
• Share personal content from PCs to AV devices while keeping protected content secure;
• Control all AV devices and access content with just a single remote per room; and
• Add any device to the home network with just one cable.

"We recognise the immense value that these groups bring to the HD industry. HANA is utilising their technologies to enable HD content sharing around the home. For example, by utilising 1394, HANA will eliminate the confusing tangle of cables used to connect TVs with home theaters, DVD players and other consumer electronics products, and let consumers use a single remote to control them all," said Kwon.

In the first half of 2006, HANA plans to work with AACS, Open Media Commons and other digital rights management technologies to gives consumers new flexibility in using content across the entire network, including managing copies across multiple devices such as portable video players. By including copyright detection technology, HANA will help consumers to access all of their personal video content while protecting content providers from piracy. This will also help enable content providers to make new and exciting HD content available to consumers in a more timely manner.

HANA compliant products will include HDTVs, next generation DVD players, personal video recorders (PVRs), set top cable boxes and home theaters. The first commercial products are expected to be available in the second half of 2006. The alliance plans to facilitate compatibility among various manufacturers’ products through compliance testing and developers’ conferences.

Looking ahead, HANA will also address:

• Advanced video compression technologies
• Interactive content
• Enhanced security
• OCAP
• Wireless Extensions

"Another big 'plus' of the HANA approach will be the ability for one remote control to manage all of the video equipment that gets connected to a HANA network. This ‘one remote control per room’ capability is a major breakthrough and presents a tremendous opportunity for consumers to finally be able to have easy access to all their home video content," said In-stat principal analyst Gerry Kaufhold.