Home gateways with Q-based devices can deliver further high-quality services, such as real-time multimedia repurposing and streaming for use within or outside the home.

Key facts:

• Transode audio/video content for distribution to different networked devices
• Sling functionality for external access to home delivered content (e.g. live premium TV channels)
• Access to home content from outside, through the internet, on any device
• Deliver IPTV/Cable/Satellite/Terrestrial signals real-time to any device in the home
• Access content from a single storage facility (PC, PVR, networked storage,...) with any device

Home gateways as home network hubs

Home gateways are establishing themselves as the connecting device between the home network and the outside world (through the internet), displacing the modems/routers that traditionally linked one or more PCs to a broadband connection. Home gateways add more functionality to/from and within the home, such as triple-play (internet, TV and telephony), connection between new wireless devices (PMPs, phones, TVs, etc...) and access of personal home content from the internet through portable devices (laptops, smartphones, etc...)

The diagram below shows a simplified view of a networked home gateway chipset implementation using Q.

The need for content reporpusing

In the Table below the red spots show examples where some kind of reporpusing, transcoding and/or transrating and/or resizing, is needed in order to link the source and destination devices through a given medium.

Destination

iPod

Zune

2nd TV

Laptop

Source

format

ADSL

Wifi

Wired LAN

ADSL

WiFi

Wired LAN

ADSL

WiFi

Wired LAN

ADSL

Wifi

Wired LAN

Broadcast TV

20Mbps MPEG-2

IPTV

5Mbps H.264

Home PC

10Mbps VC-1

internet

1Mbps Flash/H.264

* source and destinations examples are indicative and may vary with suppliers and devices

Q as home gateway engine

Q provides the functionality to allow a home gateway to intelligently and seamlessly repurpose audio/video content according to the destination device (laptop, portable media player, TV, phone, etc.) and the transport medium (LAN, WiFi, broadband connection, etc).

Content repurposing is necessary any time the destination devices does not support the audio/video format of the source and/or the transport medium does not support the require bitrates. Repurposing includes:

• transcoding to a different codec compatible with the destination
• transrating to a (generally) lower bitrate to accomodate restrictions on the destination device
• transrating to a lower bitrate to fit within the bandwidth limits of the transport medium.
• resizing to a (generally) lower resolution to match a format compatible with the destination device

Q enables the enhancement of home gateway to full multi-media home hubs where content delivery is tailored in real-time to the device requesting the stream, being it a second TV or portable media player in the home, a smart-phone or a laptop outside.