Your
Bagel Toaster is Now Online!
by
Mark Sedenquist
When
Rodger Lea, Vice-President U.S. Research Laboratories for
Sony Electronics was asked to define his five-year strategic
research and development plan for Sony, he said simply, "All
devices will connect to the Internet." Rodger was part
of a panel of high-level technological gurus representing
the R&D labs of Philips, Samsung, Thomson, Sony and Panasonic
at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Rodger's
comments effectively paraphrased the central theme at this
year's CES convention. Virtually every company's display or
literature that I looked at over the course of this five-day
event includes some direct or indirect reference to "broadband
content delivery," usually via the Internet. This hardly
suggests that we will be using electric toasters to read e-mail,
but it does tend to support the notion that at some point
in the near future an automatic toaster will "automatically"
send a status report on the required maintenance requirement
for a bagel slicing mechanism to the in-house shopping acquisition
software, which in turn, will provide an alert to our PDA
when we approach the appropriate replacement item at the local
grocery store.
It
isn't just the devices that are converging, although there
are plenty of examples of new handheld gadgets that offer
organizational tools, cellular phones, cameras, recording
and playback devices and a host of gaming and other communication
services in smaller and smaller configurations, many formerly
distinct business forms are joining forces. Dr. Heemin Kwon,
a R&D executive with Samsung shared his observations about
the Korean construction trade in regards to the high degree
of electronic devices that are now considered a part of normal
construction standards. Without question there will be similar
pairings of unlikely business partners as corporate leaders
seek to exploit new revenue streams created by Internet commerce.
There were a lot of cool new gadgets unveiled at this year's
show, and I will pass on some of those in the days and weeks
to come.
But
first, the primary purpose of this column is to find the means
for Dashboarders to connect to the Internet anywhere, anytime
at a reasonable cost. Number one on my wish list would be
finding a method to connect to this "broadband Internet"
and/or surf the Web without spending a fortune in a non-urban
location. Dashboarders have been looking forward to the rollout
of affordable two-way satellite service for some time. In
the last few weeks, both the Hughes
DirecPC and Dish Network's StarBand
have launched two-way services. Although there have been recent
postings on the Road
Wirer Wireless Forum from Dashboarders about the difficulties
of mounting and using the required satellite dish receivers
on mobile vehicles, there is nothing quite like seeing them
in person. I spoke with Starband CEO Zur Feldman and Paul
Gaske, Executive Vice President at Hughes Network Systems,
about the challenges of having non-technical consumers positioning
these satellite receivers. The relative size of these receivers,
(over three feet in diameter) and the very narrow bandwidth
required by the two-way service makes it nearly impossible
for most non-technically gifted Dashboarders to correctly
align the devices every time. An engineer confided that the
motion required to do nothing more than tighten a nut on the
mounting bracket can often result in missing the "sweet
spot" on the signal. Zur Feldman assured me that he is
very aware of the interest of mobile customers and StarBand
is working to develop a "push-button" device that
will automatically position the receiver in much the same
way that TV satellite receivers now employ. Such a tracking
device could be ready by the end of year.
For
the last four months, I have been tracking the source of a
rumor about the development of a "phased-array"
satellite receiver dish that would enable true two-way Internet
connectivity for Dashboarders. Phased-array satellite technology
has been a staple of military products for years and would
be highly desirable for Dashboarders because it would allow
the use of a much smaller receiver that could be installed
and positioned on an RV or other vehicle. Dr. H.H. Chung is
the President and CEO of SatCom
Electronics, in Poway, California, and his firm is developing
such a dish. Although the two-way product will probably not
be ready for prime time until mid 2002, I looked at two satellite
DBS-TV products that can be considered forerunners of the
eventual two-way satellite system. The MDBS-AA 2000 is a low
profile, phased-array, nearly flat satellite antenna system
that employs a multi-axis positioning platform that automatically
seeks and locks the antenna at the proper orientation. They
have been selling a mobile version (everything required fits
in an included suitcase bag) of this receiver for three years:
the PassPort Mini-Plus MP-2000-PKG. The costs seem to be comparable
to both Dish Network and DirecTV, but the much smaller footprint
of the receiver makes this product look like a winner to the
Road Wirer. They also sell a Digital Satellite positioning
device that was developed for non-technical consumer use to
aid in the positioning the receiver.
Companies
are continuing to build products that will only work when
broadband networks are in place, and many of the network providers
are already proclaiming that "now have a broadband solution
for everyone" (Hughes Network). Clearly there is much
yet to be done, but this year's CES has certainly whetted
my appetite for whatever this new millennium may bring!
Mark
Sedenquist
Las Vegas, Nevada
January 8, 2001
