Entertainment @ home Welcome to today's digital home. Home integration is about incorporating technology and content into your house. The home of the future will have audio, video, security, PC networking, and even heating all under a single integrated master system. The two speakers in the first part of this session are companies who are actually in the process of making this happen. Malcom Darbyshire spoke of new types of content which is making its way into people's home and what type of technologies are coming on board which will allow people to access and use this content in new ways. Darbyshire highlighted the growth potential in the area of interactive TV and underlined that Europe is very far advanced in experimenting with new technologies and formats. He cited a Finnish company, RedLynx as an example. When asked what type of companies 3i invests in, Drabyshire mentioned that they like disruptive technologies that bring to the market new paradigms and business models. Brandon Burgess started his remarks off by stating the NBC Universal's --- one of the world's leading content companies --- strategy is to make its content ubiquitous and available form multiple sources and devices. As such, the company is entering into new distribution partnerships with such companies as Cinema to provide online VOD and with Verizon to provide mobile content. He acknowledged Digital Video Recording Devices (DVRs) and Electronic Program Guides (EPG) will change the television landscape by giving the users the ability to watch what they want, when they want: "NBC Universal positioning themselves to the next generation of on-demand"content users. Here Burgess went on to say that NBC Universal' German GIGA entertainment and technology television channel in Germany offered the ideal platform and that the company would be focusing resources on building this up. Burgess also mentioned that media companies still have not solved the issue of protecting intellectual property and that this problem still remains very much prevalent. Last Updated 04. March 2005