Ian Dixon (and others) - Microsoft Home in London, UK

Since the UK gave us American Idol, I guess it's only fair that we send Ricki Lake over.

PS. Ian doesn't look like his avatar.

Just for the record there HDTV is on its way.  For the MS Home uk group.  SKY is currently testing its HDTV Recievers

its not 60 minutes, its 30 minutes

Minh wrote:

PS. Ian doesn't look like his avatar.

You mean better looking?

Very cool.

So how do I get hold of one of those CD's, so that I can get a list of the products featured in the house.

(Not that I can afford all those lovely toys at the moment)

Michael Butler wrote:

Very cool.

So how do I get hold of one of those CD's, so that I can get a list of the products featured in the house.

(Not that I can afford all those lovely toys at the moment)

My CD is at home so I can't remeber exactly was on it but the main content on the CD was a nice video they put together of the home in action which you can watch here

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/mhome/

brings back some memories. I went to the M-Home a few months ago (before scoble did). I really want one of those speakers.

Ian did you see the number of network ports in the corner of the living room; there were about 20 of them grouped together.

man ian doyle looks like one of my mates... quite scary the similarities!

i swear scoble looked at the spv c500/htc typhoon and noticed the orange logo on it. seemed like the camera did a double take

anyone know much about c600/tornado btw?

its funny, US and UK have adopted things quite differently.
UK seems more mobile based with text messaging etc.
US seems more entertainment based by the impression i get

IanD wrote:

My CD is at home so I can't remeber exactly was on it but the main content on the CD was a nice video they put together of the home in action which you can watch here

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/mhome/

Excellent. Thanks very much for the link.

Michael Butler wrote:

IanD wrote: My CD is at home so I can't remeber exactly was on it but the main content on the CD was a nice video they put together of the home in action which you can watch here http://www.microsoft.com/uk/mhome/

Excellent. Thanks very much for the link.

No problem

Minh wrote:

Since the UK gave us American Idol, I guess it's only fair that we send Ricki Lake over.

PS. Ian doesn't look like his avatar.

Hey I updated my Avatar

Wow, that is an awesome house!

Robert/Ian how was the sound production of all those media centers? I have my pc in my bedroom and it produces a hell of a lot of sound. (and generates alot of heat; it's about 27 degrees (C) now in here with only my pc on and outside being well under 20 degrees :O and about ~22 inside the rest of the house), having that many devices on must do the same I guess or are they using heatpipes or something similar?.

Its member of parliament and not minister.

Scoble if you read over 1000 feeds a day and had not heard of the speaker that uses a surface to project sound I am really surprised at what you are subscribing to.

I admit that the big screen was for demonstration purposes only (I hope) in the kitchen but the computer in the corner was a joke - hardly fitting into its surroundings. They should have plumed for an LG internet fridge (LG GRD-267DTU) with all that built in. Further I would like to comment on Tesco; indeed its the only retailer that makes a profit online but its food is crap, even most of its finest range is poor. It would be better to allow local butchers, bakers and farms to have first bidding when searching for ingredients, nothing like ordering organic locally grown meat to go in that 50K fridge, this is Notting Hill right!

The doorbell feature was a disappointment in the living room, it should have had a wireless video link to see who was there. Large stately homes have had this for years because their drive ways are so far from the front door, some company should make this for the masses. Why not have the biometrics centrally stored so the door could be opened with a finger much like the teenagers room PC was logged in with biometrics.

I would have liked to see her switch lights on and off via the telly like she said it could, do some IM with messenger via the telly and view local CCTV feeds via the telly.

I don’t believe the sole purpose of the bedroom was just a mirror, that’s a bit weak. The mirror unfortunately only had about a third of itself operational, all of it should have been, from other mirrors I have seen this is possible. The mirror should also be voice activated instead of another controller, and turned on/off via voice commands or by clapping.

I would expect that there be a central home PC server, so that not every room had to have an individual MCE boxes (I believe this is what extenders are for), this would allow music playing to follow me around the house, via input from sensors that can detect where I am, seamlessly while shutting of speakers in rooms I am not present in.

The digital photo frame is a bit old hat and I was disappointed not to see it wirelessly linked to MCE to constantly display images/video form a central PC. I would have liked to see the frames image change based on a proximity sensor; not just on the distance the person is form it but also change according to the person(s) viewing/present - which would wirelessly recognise who I was and get images from my phone and display them automatically or on command

As for the child’s room it was good to see a complete solution and the progress made with online homework submissions. I particularly liked the pocket money idea, where a young member of the family can spend tender as if they had an electronic account, which is often a hurdle when accessing services online. I did not think much of the box that downloaded music, I think all that should be done through MCE.

I also expected more in the way of communication, you know there are (albeit expensive) 3D star wars like displays that would be good for communicating if only MSN IM took advantage of them or prices came down:

http://www.actuality-systems.com/

Well done Ian D. for plugging Orb and the BBC.

Samuel, UK

This is a historical video because this is the first Channel9 video where we have actually been subjected to a PR demonstration. It's wrong, but I liked it.

mixelz wrote:

Wow, that is an awesome house!

Robert/Ian how was the sound production of all those media centers? I have my pc in my bedroom and it produces a hell of a lot of sound. (and generates alot of heat; it's about 27 degrees (C) now in here with only my pc on and outside being well under 20 degrees and about ~22 inside the rest of the house), having that many devices on must do the same I guess or are they using heatpipes or something similar?.

the pc's that they used were very low noise. You can get a lot of Media Center PC's that are amost silent and produce very little heat.

koorb wrote:

This is a historical video because this is the first Channel9 video where we have actually been subjected to a PR demonstration. It's wrong, but I liked it.

While it was a PR demo that demo Robert got, it was the exact demo all guests to the house got and having been on the tour a couple of times I can say Robert got the exact tour that everybody got

moofish wrote:

I admit that the big screen was for demonstration purposes only (I hope) in the kitchen but the computer in the corner was a joke - hardly fitting into its surroundings. They should have plumed for an LG internet fridge (LG GRD-267DTU) with all that built in. Further I would like to comment on Tesco; indeed its the only retailer that makes a profit online but its food is crap, even most of its finest range is poor. It would be better to allow local butchers, bakers and farms to have first bidding when searching for ingredients, nothing like ordering organic locally grown meat to go in that 50K fridge, this is Notting Hill right!

The doorbell feature was a disappointment in the living room, it should have had a wireless video link to see who was there. Large stately homes have had this for years because their drive ways are so far from the front door, some company should make this for the masses. Why not have the biometrics centrally stored so the door could be opened with a finger much like the teenagers room PC was logged in with biometrics.

I would have liked to see her switch lights on and off via the telly like she said it could, do some IM with messenger via the telly and view local CCTV feeds via the telly.

I don’t believe the sole purpose of the bedroom was just a mirror, that’s a bit weak. The mirror unfortunately only had about a third of itself operational, all of it should have been, from other mirrors I have seen this is possible. The mirror should also be voice activated instead of another controller, and turned on/off via voice commands or by clapping.

I would expect that there be a central home PC server, so that not every room had to have an individual MCE boxes (I believe this is what extenders are for), this would allow music playing to follow me around the house, via input from sensors that can detect where I am, seamlessly while shutting of speakers in rooms I am not present in.

The digital photo frame is a bit old hat and I was disappointed not to see it wirelessly linked to MCE to constantly display images/video form a central PC. I would have liked to see the frames image change based on a proximity sensor; not just on the distance the person is form it but also change according to the person(s) viewing/present - which would wirelessly recognise who I was and get images from my phone and display them automatically or on command

As for the child’s room it was good to see a complete solution and the progress made with online homework submissions. I particularly liked the pocket money idea, where a young member of the family can spend tender as if they had an electronic account, which is often a hurdle when accessing services online. I did not think much of the box that downloaded music, I think all that should be done through MCE.

I also expected more in the way of communication, you know there are (albeit expensive) 3D star wars like displays that would be good for communicating if only MSN IM took advantage of them or prices came down:

http://www.actuality-systems.com/

Well done Ian D. for plugging Orb and the BBC.

Samuel, UK

Samuel, there could have been a lot more, like Extenders and servers etc.
But the point of the home was it was stuff that is available now and affordable now, so extenders could not be in an neither could the cool photo display you talked about.

Well if it was to be affordable why was it set in notting hill, all of the invites were for VIP's and people that could afford extra things. I still think they could have done a lot more, it wasn't very exciting to me to be honest.

Maybe as the market matures and more products come out it'll get better or maybe someone will open a house with disregard for cost and really pass across what a digital home can amount to.

the invites were industry people and non tech press as well as VIP'S like me (as if )
so the products have to be affordable , the location was more convenient than any thing else as well as being a real family's home
they can use my house next time

was that a real mirror?

Nata1 wrote:

was that a real mirror?

Yes it was, there are two version the one shows was a full mirror with the screen in the bottom part and a half size one that was all screen but was a mirror when the screen was off

Mmm.. Nice bit of eye candy there.
Both for the geek and non-geek

oh yes, and that's why I went to the house twice