In the early 90s when I was working in Telecoms I remember reading a white paper on the home of the future.

In it the author described and environment were TV, computers, entertainment systems,domestic appliances were all interconnected.

You could read your email on TV, talk to your TVs , and you could put  the TV on the wall. Pretty much what you can see in the video below:

Fast forward 15 years and yes we have TVs that you can now hang on the wall but the networked home that the author envisaged is still not available.

But I believe we won’t have to wait another 15 years to see the introduction of a truly networked home were you can get your email and voicemail on your TV and surf the Internet at the same time.

Many people today are switching off their TVs and surfing the Internet on their PC. This trend I believe will be short-lived and will end when the TV and Internet get joined together.

And that is already starting to happen. Late 2007 I got a BT vision box which is basically a computer attached to the TV. It lets me record /pause live TV and download films from the Internet.

It is connected to the Internet via a Router and it connects to the router not with wireless (WI-FI) which I had expected but via the power-line.

 Although you might say that it is simply a ditial video recorder it does offer a glimpse into what is approaching and (IMO) show how fast it is approaching.

Which Way to the Future

Many forecasters have envisaged a future in which common domestic appliances are connected together an given some form of intelligence. I suppose you could say that that started many years ago with the teasmade.

However I think that is a long way in the future. The near future I believe with be driven by entertainment, home security and the home office.

The home network over the next 5 years will combine/connect the Internet, PC, telephone, Audio equipment and video equipment and mobile devices. But it will start with the TV being used to do what you could previously only do on a PC, and that is to access the Internet.

Useful Resources:

 BT Total Broadband including the BT vision box

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