© 1997-2006
Gareth Knight
All Rights reserved
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Amiga Set-Top Consortium
 At the Escom press conference on 30th May 1995,
Don Gilbreath, Chief Technical officer for VisCorp, proposed the
development an Amiga set-top consortium to cut through the
confusion of conflicting markets and set distinct goals. In his
speech, Don outlined the basics of the set-top market and the type
of technology required to bring internet-readiness to the AmigaOS
68k. His comments are in italics.
We believe a minimum base case design including
encryption technology, if possible, would be supported by
consortium members. Since this platform is destined for world
markets, a software rating mechanism would include parental lockout
of adult features and include reviews, top sellers, etc. This
standard must be In place in a similar fashion to that of the movie
and music Industry, thereby freeing the software development
community to treat it as a guaranteed publishing platform with
secure distribution of content and payment. This device which many
of us will build in various configurations will handle digitally
secured conference calls to movies on demand. The hooks must be in
place.
Don briefly outlined the markets that make set-top boxes distinct
from the desktop. Since he made these comments the set-top concept
has become devalued and desktop units have made significant inroads
as technology becomes cheaper. Nevertheless these are still the
basis of communication in business.
- What is this set-top
business all about?
- Selling product - Initial hardware sale/lease or licensing
- the enabling technology.
- Potential of ongoing revenues - hard goods - soft goods
-providing movies, telephone service, and grocery
shopping.
- Controlling transactions - classic gate keeper
model.
Part of the failure of the set-top box as a concept is the basic
nature of these systems. Many saw it as a step back in comparison
to their current computer. The Amiga itself fits many of the
parameters of the set-top goals, most notably its low cost and wide
variety of software and information on the platform. However, the
multimedia facilities would have to be built from the ground
up.
Allow an upgrade path similar to a computer. I.e.
MPEG audio/video, etc, ISDN, wireless cable modems,
etc.
Many of these technologies were available to the Amiga in some form
but it is was only in 1998 that Amiga owners finally got the full
benefit of MPEG technology (due to the processing power required
and a lack of native software to play it). A new Amiga would have
to be developed, probably based upon the ED, that built these
technologies into the very heart of the operating system. The
set-top market is aimed at the computer novice so the software
would need to be built into ROM rather than stored on a hard disk
where it could be wiped.
- We need a consortium
because the following is at stake:
- Self-interest in semiconductors - hardware design
win.
- Operating system dominance - where applications
reside.
- Delivery system dominance - cable, teleco, radio,
satellite, etc.
- Development community - tools and understanding of next
generation software.
- Secure transactions - financial and developer community
backed (musicians to software writers) to the customer it must be
friendly and secure.
The set-top market is extremely complicated, being reliant upon the
level of communication in a particular country. The UK presently
uses a metered system of a basic connection fee, plus charge per
minute of use. This makes selling a set-top box more difficult in
this country as many of the services provided require you to be
online. At the time an Amiga set-top box consortium would have been
useful in keeping the platform alive and developing Amiga-based
technology for online transactions. This may have been achieved
through paying developers to produce web browser and allow access
to closed source technology, such as Java and CSS. Although these
have now become available it has been through 3rd party Unix
software. If a consortium had existed these technologies would have
made their way onto the Amiga much faster.
The proposal for an Amiga set-top consortium was a good idea let
down by the lack of any follow-up on the plan. The financial
troubles of Escom prevented any type of exchange between an
independent group and a parent company regarding the best way of
implementing such technology into the Amiga. The role of
independent body could be played nowadays by the ICOA, developing
the Amiga technology to support internet standards. With the
reentry of the big boys into the Amiga market and the portation of
Linux applications the need for such a body is vastly reduced,
replaced by market competition. However, it may be useful for
upgrading the Classic Amiga OS.
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