Home Entertainment Networks
Home-entertainment networks should allow consumers to access, manage and share a wide range of high-bandwidth digital content, across a variety of platforms including HDTVs, DVRs, game consoles, home gateways, PCs and home media servers. We have an ever increasing set of IP based entertainment options at home: streaming video, IPTV, Video On Demand, and over-the-top (OTT) content – If we can just get it from the broadband connection to where we want to view it. The great challenge is how to distribute this quickly, easily and reliably within the home so you can have it where and when you want it. Re-wiring with CAT-5 cabling is expensive, time consuming, and is increasingly unacceptable to the home owner. The WiFi connections that many PCs use to share internet data access for email and web browsing are failing to meet the more demanding bandwidth, reliability, and QoE requirements of distributing high quality video around the home.
Coaxial cable is limited to regional deployment and does not cover the entire home, and phonelines are seldom located where they are needed to deliver video content.
Gigle solves this problem by leveraging all the wiring in the home and providing efficient bridges to wireless technologies to connect all devices in the home - those with wires and those without wires.
IPTV
Analysts are predicting that by 2012, most of the video traffic we consume will arrive from the internet, for free, and in HD. Telecommunications companies, cable operators, satellite TV providers, and other broadband providers are fiercely competing to deploy their IP services to the home. Existing IPTV deployments have proven that using Ethernet over the home’s existing powerlines (HomePlug) is a cost effective, simple, secure and practical solution in many cases. But regional differences in home wiring and susceptibility to noise interference can limit throughput and coverage- - making powerline a practical, but not a universal solution.
Gigle solves this problem by delivering solutions that use all the existing wires in the home. Product configurations include Gigabit home networking over powerline and Gigabit Home Networking over Powerline and coax or phoneline. For coax-based implementations, both passband and RF configurations are supported.
Consumer Electronics
Today, the majority of high definition televisions purchased by a consumer have a built-in Ethernet connection making them network-ready. You can access widgets on the internet. You can watch YouTube® on the boob tube. It’s compelling. Consumer electronics manufacturers are now looking for a reliable-cost efficient way of connecting without the need to install any new wires – just plug the TV into the power socket and you are networked!
Converting all of the required networking nuts and bolts into a plug-and-play, uniformly satisfying consumer experience is a huge task. To make this happen, home entertainment networks must be capable of self-setup and self-configuration. Connectivity must be a built-in capability, in conformance with universal standards so that consumers needn’t worry about interoperability issues as they pick and choose from among the equipment options of different vendors. In many cases, entertainment networks will not be connected to a PC, so it may be impossible for users to either configure or manage any software, themselves. The network will need to have the intelligence to configure and manage itself.
Gigle’s products are the most highly integrated in the industry and offer the lowest system cost and footprint. All circuitry is integrated on one piece of silicon in one low-pin-count manufacturing-friendly package. That makes for ease of system design integration, product real-estate efficiency and reliable manufacturing.
Gigle’s solutions are standards based, and designed to coexist with most other technologies to minimize the potential for compatibility problems. Features such as SimpleConnect allow nodes to be added to the network with the ease of a button push. The xtendnet™ intelligent switching agents work transparently to the user to form a mesh network around the home and ensure the best performance possible occurs automatically and continuously.
Smart Energy
We take energy supply for granted. But environmental drivers are requiring us all to be more efficient in the use of our natural resources. "Smart energy" refers to actions and technologies that are used to improve the efficiency of energy consumption. Power utility companies and service providers are focusing on adopting smart energy communications and networking technologies to help consumers monitor and reduce their energy consumption.
Gigle is playing a leading role in initiatives to produce standards-based technologies that use the existing home wiring to enable energy monitoring and control services to connect with every appliance, meter, switch and electric vehicle in the home. Monitoring and control helps deliver efficiency in consumption.
