iHome: your wallet's the limit

By PETER GRIFFIN

A new generation of "intelligent homes" is allowing families to answer the front door, water the plants and pay the bills via the internet.

And consumers will find the possibilities limited only by their imaginations, wallets and that new precious commodity - bandwidth.

Internetworking giant Cisco Systems has unlocked the door on the iHome, an internet-driven dwelling where broadband is as important as brick and mortar.

Situated a stone's throw from the Sydney fish market and nestled amid a mix of old warehouses and new art deco apartments in the up-and-coming district of Pyrmont, the iHome paints a picture of how the internet is expected to merge with the home environment.

Imagine adjusting your lighting and air-conditioning via a web browser, or using the internet to draw the blinds and run a bath for you each morning. The iHome is capable of that and more as it uses internet bandwidth to control household appliances, security and entertainment systems as well as download MP3s, full-length movies and enable video conferencing.

While the bulk of New Zealanders share the Australian experience of clunky internet access via slow dial-up modems, Cisco believes the interest generated by 10,000 people visiting the iHome will put pressure on Governments and telcos to quicken the pace of broadband rollout. The company estimates in another five years, 2.4 million Australian households will have high-speed internet access via cable modems, digital subscriber lines (DSL) and satellite.

"To date the consumer experience of the internet has been very, very ordinary," says Cisco Systems marketing and strategic alliances director Kip Cole.

"For people not intimately involved with the technology industry, that's all they've ever known of the internet and therefore they have a very little view of what the internet might mean to their daily lives. It's amazing how many years we've put up with that."

Cisco has partnered with a group of companies - Compaq, Sunbeam, Whirlpool and Sony among them - keen to stay ahead in the race to web-enable their products. While the iHome is set to revolutionise the 21st century home environment with always-on internet access, it will also provide product vendors with a means of retaining customer loyalty as they service appliances in the house remotely.

"A lot of what you'll see in this house, really shouldn't be managed from the house. There are service delivery opportunities not only for telephone services, but for security services, baby minding services, gardening services, home shopping, community club services.

"At the moment most of the service delivery is done by whoever you call out of the Yellow Pages. The objective of the manufacturer here is to reclaim some of that service opportunity," explains Mr Cole.

And although iHome comes packed with over $100,000 worth of plasma screens, internet protocol phones, internet accessible video cameras and notebook computers, Cisco is quick to point out that the "working poor" will invest only in the elements that appeal to them and fit their budget.

"We've got a ton of gear in here ... way beyond what the average household would buy or need," says Mr Cole.

Then there's the cost of bandwidth. While the iHome functioned seamlessly the day the Business Herald came knocking, it is equipped with a permanent 2 Megabit per second internet link, providing access speeds frustrated Kiwi surfers could only dream of.

"About one per cent of the capital cost of the house should get you the necessary infrastructure to do all of this, to which of course you need to add the monthly cost of your DSL or cable connection. The rest of it comes down to your imagination and your wallet," adds Mr Cole.

But will the New Zealand public be so willing to open their homes to the world outside? While Cisco ensures security is an integral part of the iHome, last year's series of high profile data security breaches showed just how resourceful the present breed of hacker has become.

Perhaps it will be not only be the cost of high-speed internet access but the threat of an electronic form of "home invasion" that will prevent the masses from moving into an iHome.

* Peter Griffin visited the iHome in Sydney as a guest of Cisco.