Although home theaters have become much more elaborate since the days of Betamax and laserdisc players, little else has changed. Granted the video and audio quality have vastly improved. Today, all the buzz is around 1080p. Throw in a fancy new Blu-ray and a THX certified 7.1 surround sound system and what do you have? A system whose general block diagram isn't that much different than the way things were done some 20 years ago.

Now before you start yelling and screaming in defense of your $10K home theater system, let's stop for a moment and think about it. If you factor out the quality improvement in each component, the model is still the same as back in the days of kluging your television to your stereo. In your living room you've got a display, a video source, and a sound system all connected point-to-point. Take a look behind your television and arguably one can say things have actually become worse in the last 20 years. Today you have to deal with more cables then anyone can really keep track of without an hour of diagramming. In that rat's nest of cables you find HDMI, DVI, VGA, component video, composite video, coax, SPIDIF, 1394, USB and Ethernet cables. The list becomes more and more complex with each generation of electronics. So when does this madness end?

Point-to-Point Basis
Today, all our video and audio content is handled solely on a point-to-point basis. Video goes from your DVD player to your television. At most, the video will be bounced through a receiver on its way to your television. Simple enough, right? That is until your beautiful 60-inch plasma TV screen on the wall turns into medusa by adding in your cable box, TiVo', DVD player, Playstation', camcorder and PC. The whole problem with a point-to-point architecture is that, in the end, everything is trying to connect to the same point: your television!

By leveraging the 1394 connector already located on some HD televisions and mandated on all HD cable set-top-boxes, HANA shatters the point-to-point model. As long as a device is connected anywhere in the 1394 network, it can communicate and share content with any other device on the network. This essentially allows you to attach all your boxes in any fashion you choose. No need for diagramming, configuring IP address, or setting keys. Simply attach and you're up and running.

Beyond just the physical connection, HANA also aims to revolutionize the user interface. Gone will be the days of multiple remote controls or programming complex universal remotes to operate with every component you own. Through HANA, a single remote will be able to instantly communicate with every device on the network. Navigation and control is made even simpler as each device on the network will serve up its own graphical user interface (GUI). On your screen will be a menu system listing every device connected, and let you control each one. Can things get any better?

Even more exciting than just simplifying the installation and interface is a whole new world of possibilities that a networked architecture enables. Gone will be days of purchasing a DVD player for each TV. Instead, you can now share that expensive Blu-ray player with every television in your home " even watch on multiple TVs simultaneously, if you choose. Pause a movie in the living room, and then continue watching it in the bedroom. No need to move discs or even to fast-forward to the place you left off. All the content in your house will be instantly available to you anywhere in your home.

Recent HANA Innovations
But how can you connect the entire house when a standard 1394 cable is only 4.5 meters, you ask? Well, HANA has a solution for that as well. Recent innovations now allow for 1394 packets to be sent across coax, CAT5 and optical fiber. There is work being done even to allow 1394 to operate across power lines. This means no new wires are needed in the home. All the existing cabling in you home can be reused. Finally, a solution to that pesky problem of how to get cable TV to the room that isn't wired.

For over a decade people have talked about the convergence of the PC and CE worlds. With 1394 ports becoming a standard feature on PCs, it is bringing this dream of convergence one step closer to reality. By connecting your PC to the HANA network through the 1394 port, you'll be able to seamlessly move content from both worlds. Play music located on your PC to a surround sound system in any room in your house. Securely copy TV programs from your DVR to take with you on your laptop or even turn your PC into a DVR. What's more, 1394 also allows for IP traffic over the same lines. This not only provides a simple to install PC network, but could also bring web surfing abilities straight to the TV " all of this over a single connection.

For HANA to be a success, it's going to need the backing of the entire industry. HANA has made great strides towards this, having already signed onto its Board of Directors industry heavyweights such as Cablevision, Charter, IBM, JVC Mitsubishi, NBC Universal, Samsung Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments and Warner Brothers. This board also represents the entire value chain needed to make HANA happen " content providers, service providers, end equipment manufacturers, plus the silicon and software to make it a reality.

Conclusions
Having made the leap from analog to digital content, our home theaters must be ready to take the next big leap - shared content. Our lives continue to become more intertwined in digital networks, yet our home theaters remain the last refuge for point-to-point communications. With the world is transitioning to high-definition televisions and replacing aging AV equipment, there never will be a better time to revolutionize our homes. One cable, one remote, and no new wires. That is the promise that HANA makes.

References
For more information about HANA, visit: http://www.hanaalliance.org.
To learn more about digital interface options, visit:
http://focus.ti.com/analog/docs/microsite.tsp?sectionId=550&tabId=2150µsiteId=1.

About the Author
Daniel Mar is Strategic Marketing Account Manager for IEEE-1394 and DVI products in the Digital Interface business unit at Texas Instruments. During his seven years at TI, he served as product engineer, characterization engineer and program manager. Daniel received a BSEE from Colorado School of Mines, and an MBA from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He can be reached at danmar@list.ti.com.