Scottsdale, Ariz. – The inclusion of Digital Living
Network Alliance (DLNA)
support in Microsoft’s planned Windows 7 operating system will give DNLA “a
further push into the living room and beyond,” ABI Research
director Jason Blackwell contended.
The research company forecasts manufacturer shipments of
more than 300 million DLNA-certified
consumer electronics devices in 2012, up from almost 200 million such products
shipped in 2008. Shipments will grow at a faster rate after 2012, ABI said. More
than 5,500 devices available worldwide, including flat-screen TVs, have
received DLNA certification.
The number of DLNA-certified TVs soared by more
than 400 in the past three months to 669, the alliance said. Most models are
available in the U.S.,
and some are due here in the fall. Certified TVs are capable of streaming
video, audio and digital images from networked PCs and network-attached storage
devices that are also DLNA-certified, regardless of brand name.
Consumers
increasingly want to distribute digital media content around their homes, Blackwell
said, but without standardization, “that is a nightmare.” Specs developed by
DLNA, however, are based on the UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) standard to “enable
easy, seamless connections in a wide and growing range of consumer electronics
devices.”
DLNA support in
the Windows 7 operating system, due in October, will give DNLA an additional
boost. With Windows 7, for example, consumers would be able to “push a sequence
of stored photos out to a digital picture frame,” he said. “Much of this new
Windows functionality will be implemented through the new version of Windows
Media Player, which will have a ‘Play to’ command, allowing the user to choose
among several DLNA-networked playback devices to display a particular video or
other media file.”
DLNA’s next task
is to increase participation by broadband service providers that offer set-top
boxes and gateways, he said.
ABI’s
conclusions are available in the Home Network Software Technologies and Markets report, which
evaluates the main home networking software standards and forecasts sales of
UPnP- and DLNA-certified devices.
