Jon Iverson

Canadian HDTV fans got a boost when <A HREF="http://www.rogers.com">Rogers Cable</A> announced last week that it has launched the largest high definition television offering by a cable operator in Canada to date. Rogers provides services to 2.3 million customers in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland.

Home networking is getting hot, and the last few months have seen numerous announcements of new technologies and proprietary standards. To help sort out the confusion, last week the Technology and Standards Department of the <A HREF="http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A> (CEA) said it has reorganized its standards-setting committees to "reflect the changing home-networking industry." According to the CEA, the R-7 Home Networking Committee, created in May 1999, will now oversee and coordinate the work of the integrated home systems and home automation standards committees, which previously worked within specific product categories.

The <A HREF="http://www.cema.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A> and the <A HREF="http://www.nab.org">National Association of Broadcasters</A> have banded together to drive digital television and its prot&eacute;g&eacute;, HDTV, forward in the US. At a recent DTV summit in Dallas, 300 executives representing manufacturers, retailers, and broadcasters met to learn about DTV rollout plans, study research results, and discuss problems facing the industry.

Two or three years ago, HDTV was the hottest topic at the Consumer Electronics Show. Not so this year&mdash;manufacturers have decided to de-emphasize the format, due to slow market acceptance and widespread uncertainty about technical standards. Instead, they are concentrating on Internet capabilities, digital networking, recordable DVD, and video projectors.