In the final Armchair Revolution business briefing held in Connected World, a panel of experts debated the problem of establishing a business case for the connected home.
Neil Nixon, chair of the session and editor of IBE Magazine, told The IBC Daily that there have been enough drivers behind the initial development of the connected home thus far. However, he added that all parties involved must have solid business cases or the converged home will fail to materialise.
“The connected home is already happening and it will continue to evolve over the next year,” noted Nixon. “With companies like Cisco and Ericsson pushing it, it is going to be a reality. There are challenges, of course; for content owners, it’s about how they can protect their valuable assets.
“Equally there are financial challenges for set-top box companies, operators, device manufacturers; everyone has to find a business case for it,” Nixon continued. “It’s only if all these links in the chain find their business cases that the connected home will work. Yet, as often happens with these things, there is momentum behind it and it will take off.”
Nixon warned: “It is unsustainable to hand over the reigns of the connected home to the consumer if the business model doesn’t work.”
Altogether, 11 speakers discussed how end users are shaping the industry through their choice of content and ways of consumption in the Armchair Revolution series of debates held over four days at this year’s IBC.
Nixon stated: “This series has been really productive; it’s been a great opportunity for people to discuss the likely shape of the world we live in.”
