DLNA App Certification Allows Legacy Devices to Be DLNA-compliant

LAS VEGAS -- The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) extended its certification program to software applications, President Nidhish Parikh, told us at CES. By extending certification to apps, the alliance can expand the reach of the “DLNA ecosystem,” Parikh said, not only with new devices but also by bringing legacy devices that aren’t DLNA-certified into the fold. Those can include PCs that are software upgradable, he said, but most notable are iPhone and iPad devices that Apple has chosen not to put through DLNA certification. DLNA was formed in 2003 to develop an interoperability platform for digital devices based on open and established industry standards that support media sharing over wired or wireless networks.

The alliance is also offering protected streaming certification for commercial video, Parikh said, saying “it’s been challenging to stream protected content around the home.” The DLNA certification includes guidelines that “allow secure streaming of protected content between two devices,” he said. The certification program leverages Digital Transmission Content Protection over Internet Protocol to “securely share commercial movies between products in a consumer’s home network” and “preserve the rights of copyright holders,” according to DLNA. The certification has been recognized as an international standard by the International Electrotechnical Commission, Parikh said, and recognizes the “growing importance of digital content in the home.” He said “more and more” video content is delivered to the home from an increasing number of sources and distribution models, and “we hope to build that up."

Certification fees are $15,000 for base hardware devices and their derivative products that don’t affect the DLNA stack, Parikh said. Manufacturers assume costs for testing at DLNA plugfests held around the world to determine compatibility. Manufacturers also assume costs of third-party testing, Parikh said. The fee for software certification is $1,000, he said, and it’s payable for the retesting needed yearly by software’s nature.

The DLNA Alliance has 200 member companies, and more than 9,000 product models have been DLNA-certified. “We'll hit 10,000 very soon,” Parikh said. He cited industry statistics forecasting 1 billion DLNA products in the world market by 2014.