New Digital Multimedia in Vehicles to Highlight CES 2001
5 January 2001
New Digital Multimedia in Vehicles to Highlight CES 2001; Mack Truck, Lincoln Navigator Featured at 1394 Trade Association, Booth 3747 and IDB Forum, Booth 10169
LAS VEGAS--Jan. 4, 2001--Advanced multimedia for the car, truck and SUV takes center stage at the annual Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 6-9, with a pair of new vehicles demonstrating a wide range of networked consumer electronics and computer products linked over the new automotive-grade IDB-1394 multimedia standard.
In the 1394 Trade Association exhibit: a Lincoln Navigator from Ford Motor Company, equipped with a Sony Playstation 2 interfacing with two in-vehicle 1394 video displays, showing how portable consumer electronic multimedia devices can interface in vehicles without major modifications. The Navigator also features an interchangeable CD player, camcorder, and digital versatile disk that demonstrates the universal plug-and-play advantages the IDB-1394 specification enables. A customer `convenience port' built into the network backbone lets users plug in their choice of electronic devices, such as a notebook computer or handheld device, using the same cable that is used in the home.
Down the corridor in 10169, the IDB Forum's exhibit, revolving around Mack's Vision model truck, with a complete array of consumer products including an 18-inch flat panel and touch panel displays from Planar Systems, DVD system and CD changer from Panasonic, Fujitsu CD/MD audio system, Motorola iDEN telephone, Rand McNally Palm V, Sony camcorder, VST hard disk drive and other systems running on plastic optical fiber from Sumitomo under an interface module, called DHIVA, developed by Digital Harmony Technologies. DHIVA also is in use in the Navigator.
"These in-vehicle multimedia exhibits demonstrate the potential of the IDB-1394 specification to provide complete, easy-to-use, multimedia connectivity in cars, trucks, SUVs, and other vehicles," said IDB Forum Executive Director Arlan Stehney. "IDB-1394 is the most efficient, powerful standard for these exciting applications, and we're pleased to be able to show both the Mack Truck and the Lincoln Navigator at CES."