March 10, 2005

By Jason Deign, News@Cisco

Walk into Nigel Moulton's home and you get a taste of how we all might be enjoying a wireless life in a few years' time. While everything might at first seem like normal, with all the trappings of a standard UK household, the air is alive with data.

Thanks to a host of wireless devices from Linksys®, a division of Cisco Systems®, the stereo plays MP3s housed on the hard disk of a computer next door. The TV doubles as a photo album for pictures taken on a digital camera. A laptop in the garden can print documents in the study.

Moulton, a former Cisco employee, is well aware of the wonder of wireless because he makes a living from it, selling home networking products and providing online advice as the founder of a specialist company called getNetworked Ltd (www.getnetworked.co.uk).

His first steps in wireless living came three years ago when, like a growing number of home computer users, he realized it would be handy to be able to link together machines in different parts of the house. That was just the beginning, though.

With a growing amount of media, from photos to music, being bought or brought into the house in digital format, the real benefit of wireless is in connecting PCs to home entertainment devices such as hi-fis and televisions.

"Until recently, the only way I could enjoy MP3s or digital photos was on the computer," he says. "Now we use my wife's PC as a media server and, with a wireless media adapter, watch the pictures on the TV and listen to the music on the stereo."

Wireless has changed the way Moulton and his family consume media. For example, he has transferred his entire CD collection to MP3 so that he can let the play-list function of his Apple iTunes service select the music he listens to

This transformation has been greatly helped by changes in home wireless technology, led by Linksys. "Three years ago, the price point was high and the range of applications was very data-centric," says Moulton.

Now that has all changed. Moulton estimates that the entire expenditure for linking his home information and entertainment systems is about £250, roughly the price of good stereo equipment. Just as importantly, the security of the technology has got easier to handle.

A few years ago, configuring a secure wireless installation was not beyond the ability of someone with fair IT skills, but it was hardly a piece of cake. Now, with a function called SecureEasySetup^TM, it is becoming as simple as pushing a button.

Linksys has helped move home wireless out of the study and into the living room and beyond with an ever-expanding range of devices, from print servers to game adapters, media center extenders, presentation players, Internet video cameras and music systems.

At the same time, the versatility of the technology is being improved all the time. At this year's CeBIT IT and telecommunications show in Hannover, Germany, for example, Linksys will be showcasing a development called SRX which greatly extends the range and speed of wireless g.

Short for Speed and Range eXpansion, SRX uses a system called Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO, part of the upcoming 802.11n wireless standard) to eliminate reception dead spots and boost the range of 802.11g wireless by up to three times, and its speed by up to eight times.

With all this, it is easy to see why wireless is rapidly spreading beyond the homes of enthusiasts such as Nigel Moulton and becoming the new standard for home entertainment and communications.

And as wireless adapters appear on the market for virtually every device in the home entertainment catalogue, the logical question is: what next?

The answer to that question will again be on show at CeBIT, where pride of place on the Linksys stand will not be for SRX or even security, but voice over IP (VoIP).

In a home setting, VoIP basically means a telephone service through a cable or DSL Internet connection. It can lower your monthly phone bills, allow you to have services and features not available with a traditional phone; and it is big business.

Since its launch last year, sales of the Linksys phone adapter have grown faster than any other product in the company's history. The device and others in the VoIP range are offered in combination with packages from service providers such as Vonage, AT&T and Verizon.

For leading exponents of wireless living such as Moulton, however, there is still much more to come beyond VoIP. His business is working with security systems suppliers on a concept that will allow webcam-based home surveillance to be tied into the home network.

And further down the line is the promise of wireless-activated light switches, window blinds, central heating controls and so on, all controlled by a single remote control or even remotely via Internet.

"One thing I'd like to see is a wireless family calendar which you can update using Outlook," enthuses Moulton. "It's a sweet application based on a wireless network, and it's the wireless part that is fundamental to all of this."

Jason Deign is a freelance journalist located in Barcelona, Spain.