HAVi Companies Demonstrate Technology Advances at CES

Las Vegas, NV, January 8, 2001 - Concurrent with the Winter Consumer Electronics Show, HAVi Inc. presented several demonstrations of HAVi network functionality to selected members of the consumer electronics industry and press. Numerous companies collaborated to organize and exhibit four demos that highlighted benefits and features of a home entertainment network based on the Home Audio Video interoperability (HAVi) architecture.

HAVi, Inc. was originally formed by eight leading CE manufacturers that developed the original specification over a multi-year period, and debuted the v.1.0 at last year's CES. Since then, the roster of member companies has grown to almost 50, including several new members whose work was on display this year.

The demonstrations focused on underlying technology, rather than prototype products, since HAVi member companies are diligently focusing on refining and testing various implementations of software code based on the v. 1.0 specification, to ensure quality and interoperability prior to productization.

Demos included:

  • A sample home AV network demonstrating multi-device, multi-vendor Interoperability using HAVi software developed by VividLogic, a Teralogic Cougar DTV development environment, Hitachi HD display, prototype IEEE 1394 AV hard disk drives, and currently shipping digital video cameras.
  • A series of prototype HAVi applications developed by Philips that included a "bridge" linking a HAVi network with a Universal Plug & Play network to control home lighting.
  • A multi-brand demonstration of loading a Java-based software "Havlet" from one device to another showing forward compatibility or "future-proofing."
  • A multi-brand network consisting of a HAVi wired cluster with multiple 5GHz HiperLAN/2 wireless extensions. The network contains DVB receivers, displays, tape and hard disk based storage devices and performs A/V streaming and device control using HAVi within the wired cluster and legacy protocols via the wireless links. This demo and the "Havlet" upload demo were originally developed by the COMMEND consortium, a European project developing a home entertainment demonstrator using HAVi technology.

    HAVi Board Member Max Artigalas of THOMSON Multimedia explained, "we're happy to be able to show some of the progress HAVi has made over the past year toward our mutual goal of providing a high quality, upgradable home entertainment network solution to make life easier for consumers. We have some very active new member companies aggressively developing software and product concepts, and within the COMMEND project, Grundig, Philips, Sony and Thomson made significant advances through our individual and co-developed engineering efforts." About HAVi, Inc.

    HAVi began as a joint effort on the part of eight of the world's leading consumer electronics manufacturers: Grundig AG, Hitachi Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic), Royal Philips Electronics, Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, THOMSON multimedia and Toshiba Corporation, which worked together for over two years to develop a common specification for interoperability among networked digital home entertainment products.

    HAVi Incorporated, a non-profit association, is open to companies and non-profit institutions interested in extending the awareness, knowledge and understanding of the HAVi Specification. Further information about HAVi can be obtained from the organization's web site http://www.havi.org. The HAVi specification (Version 1.0) can also be downloaded from this site.

    The HAVi name and logo are registered trademarks of HAVi, Inc.. All other third party product or service names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

    <Regional Press Contacts for HAVi, Inc.>
    Jeannet Harpe (Royal Philips Electronics) - Europe
    Tel: +31 40 27 35677
    Fax: +31 40 27 32729
    Email: Jeannet.Harpe@Philips.com

    Bill Chase (interprise ventures, inc.) - North America Tel: +1-927-XXX-XXXX
    Fax: +1-927-XXX-XXX
    Email: bchase@intentures.com

    Kenichi Nakamura (Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.) - Asia Tel: +81-3-3459-9164
    Fax: +81-3-3437-2776
    Email: kenken@ctmo.mei.co.jp.

    Backgrounder on HAVi and the Home Audio Video interoperability Specification

    The HAVi version 1.0 Specification, released in December, 1999 and announced in January, 2000 at the Consumer Electronics Show, was developed specifically for home entertainment digital AV networks. It was designed to support high bandwidth for transmitting multiple, real-time AV streams and provide easy "plug-and-enjoy" functionality, using the IEEE1394 digital interface (i.LINK™ or FireWire™). The HAVi specification defines a set of APIs and middleware capable of:

  • automatically discovering devices on the network,
  • coordinating the functions of various devices,
  • installing applications and user interface software on each appliance,
  • ensuring interoperability amongst multiple brands of devices.

    The HAVi approach has many characteristics that make it uniquely suited for entertainment applications. It provides for several different levels of connected devices -- ranging from digital products shipping today that have an IEEE 1394 connector (e.g. DV camcorders with i.LINK) which are considered Legacy AV devices (LAVs), to future Full AV devices (FAVs) which can provide advanced network control and a Java Virtual Machine for installing SDD (self-describing devices) data from "intelligent" BAVs (Base AV) as well as running downloaded programs. In between these levels are IAVs (Intermediate AV) that provide flexibility in meeting different levels of functionality and product price point.

    The HAVi architecture has the inherent expandability to load new programs or upgraded software (Havlets) to handle new needs and functionality. The reality is that home digital entertainment networks will be incrementally built by consumers over time, and the HAVi architecture ensures devices can be easily added to, or removed from, the network at any time. New products will automatically recognize changes in the network configuration, and identify the available functionality and where it is located, all without interrupting the functioning of the network. A home PC is not required for a HAVi network to operate, nor is it restricted from playing a part.

    HAVi has been designed to download upgraded control programs from the Internet and will be able to support wireless AV data streams within an IEEE 1394-based home network. In addition, several HAVi member companies have developed bridges to connect HAVi networks to other home networking sub networks based on UPnP, Jini, and other standards. Because HAVi is an interoperability and networking Specification and not a single code stack, many different but compatible executions have and will continue to be developed.

    The mission of HAVi Incorporated is to promote the adoption of the HAVi architecture for consumer AV devices and peripherals and to encourage the development of software applications and services to bring new convenience, flexibility and personalization to consumers. There are currently three technical Working Groups as well as a Marketing Working Group, and plans have been announced for a 1.01 enhancement of the current specification. The HAVi Specification, the Test Requirements and HAVi Java API are freely available for consideration and may be downloaded from the organization's web site at www.havi.org.

    Licensing of the Intellectual Property patents contained in the Spec may be required for any HAVi compliant products shipped. A patent pool has been established to facilitate licensing, and contact information is also available at www.havi.org.

    The i.LINK name and logo are registered trademarks of Sony Corporation. FireWire is registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Sun, Sun Microsystems and Jini, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in other countries.

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