Called Soft at Home the new platform has been developed outside of the US led DLNA with Thompson Orange and Sagem three Companies that already operate in Australia pushing the Soft Home platform.
At the 2008 CES Expo in the USA several senior Telstra executives met with both Sagem and Thompson to discuss home gateways and the new Soft At Home platform.
Marketing brochures for the new home automation platform claim that the aim of Soft At Home is to simplify and drive development of the digital home however many organisations are already questioning the services that the new platform can deliver.
A recent press release said, "The Soft At Home structure is aimed at creating a standard for the interconnection of equipment within the multimedia ecosystem". Linux based the initial members are also seeking addition members to join the consortium.
Despite a lot of hype there is little detail on the software platform however ChannelNews has been able to ascertain that a key component of the offering is a set top box that delivers a menu to a screen while also allowing for the management of entertainment and home office devices as well as devices such as lighting and distributed audio.
We have also been told that the next generation of residential gateways and TV decoders will be used equipped with the Soft at Home software".
Ovum Research said recently in a report to subscribers" Soft at Home is a big deal for all three players, which are already implementing the software in their products and services. We think it's particularly significant that Orange, with a footprint of over 6 million Liveboxes in a number of different markets, is already deploying this software in its new generation kit. We will be interested to see to what extent other operators and vendors, particularly consumer electronics vendors like Sony and Microsoft, decide to participate in the development and adoption of a platform squarely focused on the home network, the gateway to the digital home".
