HANA Releases 2.0 Design Guideline to Move Home Networking Industry Forward

New Guideline Brings HD to Life Throughout the Home

BEAVERTON, Ore. — The High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance (HANA) today announced that it has released its HANA 2.0 Design Guideline. HANA 2.0 is the first home networking standard that allows consumers to share both high definition and standard definition content between devices anywhere in the home, over a single cable and with a single remote control. Rather than adding to the already over-crowded list of specifications and protocols, HANA used existing industry standards to meet HANA’s goal of creating a simple home networking solution that benefits the industry and enhances the user experience.

“We are excited about the simplicity that HANA 2.0 is bringing back to home entertainment with its one cable, one remote capabilities,” said Jack Chaney, HANA Technical Work Group Chair. “HANA 2.0 utilizes 1394, guaranteeing the Quality of Service required by consumers for today’s HD content. 1394 is the only network that provides isochronous delivery of HD video and audio programming without any complications.”

HANA 2.0 provides manufacturers with the necessary information to create new, interoperable, networked devices and services. Along with the guaranteed QoS, 1394 enables consumers to use their existing coax wiring, the same wires that carry cable and satellite TV, to connect products throughout their homes. Consumers can daisy chain their devices together using a 1394 cable and connect to the coax jack using a HANA coax bridge, eliminating the need for complex rewiring. Since a 1394 port is standard in every HD cable set-top box consumers can send cable programming to any HANA DTV in the home from a single set-top box.

HANA 2.0 implements other industry standards including many of those used by UPnP to discover devices on the home network. In addition, the design guideline uses the browser defined in CEA-2014-A and extends CEA-931-C to enable a single remote control to operate any connected device without having to program the remote with those annoying 3-digit manufacturers’ codes.

In addition to distributing content to any connected device in the home, HANA 2.0 protects valuable content from theft or misuse, while supporting the fair use rights of consumers. The design guideline requires DTCP/5C content protection. 5C has been approved by all the major studios for use on 1394 and for use in Blu-ray and HD DVD players and recorders. 5C also meets the needs of consumers by not requiring any passwords or software to download; consumers need only select the content they want to watch and the devices take care of the rest.

HANA 2.0 Features

The design guideline provides a rich set of features designed to support the needs of the entire home entertainment network, from the content provider and OEM to the consumer. HANA 2.0 benefits consumers by allowing anyone to share both HD and SD content between devices throughout the home, using a single remote control. The guidelines benefit the industry by adhering to existing standards, allowing companies to quickly bring their products to market and enabling them to interoperate with other products and services that utilize the same standards and protocols.

HANA 2.0 features include:

• Sharing of a minimum of 5 simultaneous HD content streams throughout the entire home
• Simple browser/server architecture providing a rich Graphical User Interface for menu navigation
• True plug-and-play simplicity for consumers
• High-speed, guaranteed Quality of Service networking to ensure a reliable and uninterrupted viewing and listening experience
• Ability to add new devices to the network without having to download new device drivers or update firmware
• Ability to reserve device resources for future use to enable time-shift recordings

HANA at CES

At the 2008 International CES, HANA is demonstrating its HANA 2.0 home networking solution. The four room demo will show up to five simultaneous HD content streams being distributed over coax and wirelessly throughout the HANA Home. The HANA Home is located in the North Hall Meeting Rooms N119/N120.