By Khali Henderson
Being away from home on business, i.e. to attend NXTcomm, has its stresses. The work piles up. You miss your kids, your spouse, your pets. And, most of all, your comfy couch and flat-screen TV.
Fortunately for NXTcomm attendees, the vendors at the show had both in abundance.
I have never seen so many flat panels in one room. Every booth had at least one -- some had a dozen or more. But the really interesting setups were faux living rooms. You could step right in a demo IPTV, VoD, interactive games, etc. This is indicative of the transformation undergoing our industry. Rather than just looking at the network and the bits and bytes, we are concerned with the end user experience. The demos are moving from the "booth" to a setting -- albeit staged -- that approximates the user's home. Some of the vendors went to great lengths to pull off the illusion.
Here's a few:
Telect demos gaming. The paneling, lamps and pictures complete the room.
Hitachi's living room is every sports nut's dream -- three screens going at once.
Not too cozy, but Microsoft's Mediaroom is really cool just the same.
Ruckus Wireless demos HDTV over Wi-Fi. Potted plants give that homey feel.
Another IPTV demo. Notice the laptop and phone on the coffee table. This is a setup for the power home networking user.
