Telecom providers can now extend their service offering with a new television solution called FusionTV from Entone.  The Connected home solution provider has released the hybrid TV platform to enable telecom operators to offer “Over the Top” (OTT) content mixed with Standard HDTV programming.  The flexibility of the FusionTV manage services allows linear HDTV services to be delivered by traditional programming sources such as IPTV, cableTV or OTA broadcasts plus online media services such as video on demand (VOD), music streaming, photo sharing, social media and other popular web content an

One of the big trends in inter-home and business communication in recent year is Voice over IP (VoIP).  Some of us are aware of the technology and its ability to allow us to make cheap and sometime free telephone calls; some also think it is only for big businesses.  This might have been the case at one point but thanks to the Open Source community VoIP along with a host of enterprise features are now available as an easy to setup home or small business solution. In this article I will describe some of the best and most useful VoIP facilities for the home or small business user. 

This month sees the third of one of America’s major telecom operators partnering with a Smart Grid solutions provider to offer their communication infrastructure to the Smart Grid Sector. First it was Sprint and GridNet, then Verizon and SmartSynch and now it’s AT&T* and Elster who have announced a similar partnership. Under the agreement between AT&T and Elster utilities will be able to communicate with Elster's EnergyAxis advanced metering systems via AT&T's high speed cellular data network.

D-Link has released an advance home network digital media storage solution: ShareCenter Pulse (DNS-320). ShareCenter Pulse is the first from D-Link’s new storage range and is available in the UK from amazon, dabs and ebuyer. The ShareCenter Pulse is packed full of features for those who need to centralised their digital media storage plus the flexibility to share, access, stream and protect these medias.

Members of the Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition (DRSG) went to the United Nation Framework Convention Climate Change (UNFCC) in Cancun, Mexico to speak to attendees.  The delegates went to highlight the importance of Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition (DRSG) in ensuring that climate policy goals are attained.

SoftAtHome and Lantiq have decided to join their respective expertise to develop and integrated platform for advance home gateways.  SoftAtHome has combined its digital home operating platform with Lantiq’s broadband access and home networking technologies. So Far they have created a ChipSet Support Package (CSSP) that enables SoftAtHome Operating Platform (SOP) to rapidly be deployed on the latest XWAY XRX-100 processors.

Recently launched DivX TV is now available on LG Electronics Home Theater Systems LHB335, LHB535 and LHB975 and Blu-ray Disc Players BD550, BD570 and BD590.  The new systems are available to US shoppers from Best Buy and Amazon. Through the DixX TV platform owners of any of the above LG systems can now access on demand content such as internet videos, customized content and original web programming.

China’s Television Manufacturer TCL has licenses the Digital Interactive Interface for Video & Audio™ (DiiVA™) consortium, smart TV platform for its next generation of connected TV.  Under its recently released technology standard , DiiVA as created a new architecture that allows consumers to access their digital content across all 3 screens (PC, Mobile and TV).

Motorola Mobility, has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 4Home, Inc., a developer of a patented and award-winning software and services platform that bridges the gap between the consumer and the devices that deliver services and information in today's connected home.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close by the end of the year.

Like a lot of technologies we use today IP (Internet Protocol) technology started as a simple idea to allow machine-to-machine communication, mainly computers.  Fast forward the technology has withstand the test of time and after 30 years, IP has become the heart of the internet and telecommunications and set to become the life vein of the of the connected home.