A call for the home media network

Communications of the ACM | , Vol 45: pp. 71-75

Publication

Home media acquisition, production, storage, and use is on the cusp of a radical change. The current home’s hodge-podge of ad-hoc analog equipment will be replaced by all-digital, networked media equipment: the Home Media Network. There is no question that this change is coming; the question is “how soon”? The goal of this paper is to spur consumer and computer manufacturers to start delivering the Home Media Network now. We hope that this discussion of the issues, the advantages, and the breakthrough possibilities will convince manufacturers not to wait any longer.