When new makes old new again

I always get a bit bored when people tell you how fast the world is getting.

I always get a bit bored when people tell you how fast the world is getting.
 
This doesn't mean I don't agree with them of course - in the last decade I've watched digital connectivity transform my life and that of my children - but I dislike the way it suggests relentless, unfocused change.
 
The interesting thing about technology is that while it keeps producing new and wonderful effects, it also keeps re-inventing the tried and true.
 
Just this week I took a look at both ultra high definition television and IP phones and was amazed at just what a major make-over these two 20th century gadgets are getting.
 
Ultra high definition TV, or UHD as it's tweeted, promises to deliver 4 to 16 times the resolution of the HD format currently grabbing headlines. It also promises to deliver 22.2 multi-channel, three-dimensional sound.
 
While UHD won't be with us for a few years - and Japan will lead uptake - the IP phone is already here and thriving. It only seemed like yesterday that I was hearing the fixed line phone at home was dead as we migrated to mobiles or the pc for all our communication - but no more.
 
These VOIP based phones not only look great, but provide always on web access and telepresence capability over large colour screens. I was impressed.
 
But the thing that struck me most about these two back-to-the-future devices is how they'll really have to rely on that other old favourite-copper cable.
 
These two re-worked technologies are just another sign that as the technologies keep coming at faster and faster rates  - and higher and higher digital content - they're making the need for wire at home, more, not less, important.
 
Like fixed line phones and the television set, home wires and cables were supposed to have been all but wiped out by now. But nothing could be further from the truth as the reality of what wireless can do at home has, well, hit home.
 
They say that there's nothing under the sun. Well technology is giving that old saying a run for its money, but maybe we can also say that everything old is new again just as easily.
 
John Fennell
copperd1@tpg.com.au