Overview

The adoption of broadband internet and the proliferation of wifi-connected devices such as smartphones, web tablets, and netbooks has resulted in the computer network becoming a standard feature of the modern home. But there are a number of ways in which the modern family is yet to realize the full benefit of this home networking revolution.

OpenHome is an independent body committed to redressing this through the design, implementation, and promotion of open standards. It stimulates innovation by transforming the home network into a rich environment for applications that fit with the way families live.

ohOs

Users of personal computers and portable computing devices are familiar with the process of installing applications according to their own personal tastes or needs. But there are a number of applications that do not fit neatly into this pattern of deployment and use.

The OpenHome Operating System, ohOs, fills this gap by providing a place to deploy software that is for use not only by a single individual but by all family members. And in doing so ohOs opens the way for applications that:

Allow the family to access and control a wide range of domestic appliances, such as lights, media players, and security cameras, organized from the perspective of the home as a whole.

[Illustration of someone controlling lights using an iPad-like device]

Allow the family to view, and maintain structured information that is most meaningful in the context of the home, such as shared calendars, family address books, and photo albums.

[Illustration of someone putting car servicing appointment into a family calendar using an iPad-like device]

Provide opportunities for creativity and fun for the family as a whole.

[Illustration of family members each with their own iPad or iPhone jointly doing a crossword?]

Provide rich, user-friendly control over otherwise technically challenging networking facilities, such as parental control over internet access.

[Illustration of a child unable to access the internet from their bedroom at night with happy care-free parents downstairs?]

Provide a trusted domain for archiving and messaging that keeps all information safely within the boundary of the domestic network.

[Illustration of someone storing the code for a safe using an iPhone-like device?]

ohOs achieves this by providing lightweight, always-on, networked computing for applications that can be installed from a readily accessible app store and used by any web-browser-enabled device. More details are avaliable here.

ohMedia

Networked audio was arguably the first popular application for the networked home. The idea of storing a digital music collection on a central server and playing it on a range of networked audio devices has begun to take hold. Add to this the idea that choosing and controlling that music should be possible from wirelessly networked mobile devices and we have the basic architecture for home audio that was first outlined in the UPnP AV specification.

[Illustration of networked audio home with music being enjoyed in different rooms and being controlled by iPad-like devices]

However, UPnP AV contains serious oversights and flaws that prevent it from delivering an appealing networked music experience.

In order to address this OpenHome has created a set of open extensions to UPnP AV that delivers a music system fit for use throughout the home. Furthermore, OpenHome continues to develop completely new standards, such as Songcast, which deliver totally new home-centred functionality. More details are avaliable here.

Implementations

OpenHome maintains that open standards are best developed in parallel with real-world implementations of those standards. This ensures that they are both fit for use and immediately available for use.

In pursuit of this principle, OpenHome publishes an ever-growing suite of high quality, open software that is actively maintained and already proven in successful commercial products.

This includes:

ohNet, the OpenHome networking stack, which facilitates the creation of service-oriented, SOAP-based networking software with inherent UPnP support.

ohSongcast, which implements OpenHome standards for one-to-many transmission of audio around a home network

ohNetworkMonitor, which provides facilities for troubleshooting home networking problems