Jonathan Takiff: Comcast, Sony hook up to offer cutting-edge tech

THE GIZMO: Sony Comcast store gets its groove on.

CABLE GUY MAKEOVER: When you dream of hip, sleek, sexy electronics, how often do you think of cable TV? Like, um, never?

Get those images of Larry the Cable Guy and that dusty old set-top box out of your head. Instead, think about engineering wizards on high-tech steroids, pumping up cable's broadband capacity to super power. Or contemplate a next-generation cable TV tuner so smart and sleek it has made itself disappear.

Those are two of the "near future" technologies Comcast is showing off in its first public laboratory/store. Jointly opened with Sony in Comcast's new corporate headquarters at 17th Street and JFK Boulevard, the venture is a unique variation on those handsome Sony Style stores (40+ locations coast to coast, including King of Prussia).

Called Sony Style Comcast Labs, this innovative store is intended to make a visitor feel good about being a cable customer. And to ease the connections (mental and actual) between service and hardware.

Oh, and you can also buy a bunch of cool gadgets and software - from digital music players to TVs to laptops like the ultra-small, $800 Sony Vaio P, which Comcast chief executive officer Brian Roberts was quick to snap up at the store's opening yesterday.

HELP IS ON HAND: While Comcast also has relationships with retailers like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target, essentially to sign up customers, this new collaboration with Sony guarantees "you'll see our best technology running on the latest, greatest hardware, to really bring it to life" enthused the Comcast CEO.

And for sure, you'll be able to get any and all questions answered - without a five-minute wait on hold - from the crew of Sony and Comcast "consultants" stationed in the lower-lobby-level store, said Sony senior vice president of retail stores Dennis Syracuse.

"At Sony Style stores, the free service at our concierge counter is every bit as important to us as the sales we generate," he said.

HIGH TECH UNVEILED: This collaborative vehicle was first sketched out by Roberts and Sony corporate chairman and CEO Sir Howard Stringer after Roberts made his keynote address at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show and wow'd the crowd with some of the technology coming out of the cable labs.

Most promising - and starting to roll out a year later - is the upgraded DOCSIS 3.0 technology (data over cable service interface specifications) for pumping anything Internet-related through the cable system.

While most cable broadband customers are accustomed to data delivery speeds of about 6 megabits per second, DOCSIS 3.0 will double the standard service to 12 Mbps, with a temporary power boost, whenever a big file download is automatically sensed, of up to 20 Mpbs at no extra charge.

That's more than enough speed to stream a high-definition movie instantly with just minor (if any) signal compression - a major reason Comcast folks believe the debate over which service carries more HD channels will be resolved in their favor.

WIDE OPEN SPACES: Still not enough broadband for your busy operation?

Premium-priced, "wideband" 50 and 100 Mpbs versions, useful for things like video conferencing and applications as yet unimagined, will get the really big push as DOCSIS 3.0 is deployed.

Comcast just launched it in San Francisco; it hits metro Washington, D.C. in June; and the company will make wideband available to 30 million customers, including the hometown clientele, by the end of 2009, said Roberts.

Then, after Comcast has reclaimed the last of its old analog channels and switched all subscribers over to digital TV service, there'll be even more capacity available for wideband. With DOCSIS 3.0, as many as 10 channels could be bonded to produce a download data speed of one Gigabit per second, allowing the complete transfer of an uncompressed, high-def movie in about three minutes.

At present, Sony Style Comcast Labs is demonstrating the speed and quality of 100 Mbps Web-site connections on a Sony Vaio laptop.

Wouldn't it be instructive, and fun, if they hooked up a PlayStation 3 system (also for sale in the store) and demonstrated online video-game play and lightning-fast downloads of high-resolution games and movies onto the PS3's hard drive from the PlayStation Network?

Just a thought.

LOOK MA, NO CABLE BOX: Also getting a preview at the "Lab" is a prototype Sony flat-screen TV with "tru2way" technology.

When connected directly to a Comcast cable line, without a cable box in-between, this digital TV will still let you perform interactive functions like selecting a video-on-demand using just the "one and only" Sony remote that runs the television's power, volume and input controls.

As this new, two-way communication technology has been standardized throughout the cable and TV industries, you'll be able to use the same set on any cable system. At the moment, Comcast is live with tru2way in Chicago and Denver, with the first compatible 42- and 50-inch sets available there from Panasonic.

HOME PHONES PLUS: Home phones that look like a conventional cordless but do a whole lot more are likewise on display and in Comcast's very near future.

Dubbed an "enhanced cordless telephone," this variant uses voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) technology to make and receive calls. Also, the color-screened handsets offer features you've learned to love on your mobile phone, like e-mail and instant messaging.

T-Mobile and Verizon are also getting into VOIP home phones, but will theirs also allow you to program a DVR or change the TV channel, as I'm suspecting Comcast's product soon will?

Unlikely.

By the way, the prototype Comcast phone carries the imprint of the French electronics maker Thomson. "It's the only non-Sony product in the store," said Syracuse, half apologetically. "We're not in that business." *

E-mail Jonathan Takiff at takiffj@ phillynews.com.

Sony Style Comcast Labs, 1701 JFK Boulevard, open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, till 5 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday. 215-523-6241.