January 12, 2006

Market convergence is a fact of life. Most home entertainment products are packed with more IT than we realize, and many users are keen on networking their personal home entertainment systems in order to tap into the latest and greatest content offerings and take full advantage of what today's new programs have to offer. This is where "digital living" steps in. Unlike conventional exhibitions, with products displayed in glass cases, "digital living" aims to introduce visitors to the functionality, usefulness and sales potential behind digital lifestyle products. The exhibits are put out on open display, where visitors can pick them up and try them out. In this way the visiting public can really get an idea of what the products are like. Trade visitors will be looking at business opportunities, while consumers get their hands on products they always dreamed of buying.

Four themed presentation platforms show how different technologies and product worlds interact. In a series of spectacular shows and live performances visitors will see how TV, audio, video, home entertainment and mobile communications are converging and changing the way we live. Presenting the shows will be TV professionals with sales experience from RTL and SAT, such as Dirk Klingebiel, Ralf Kuhler and Nadine Brandstatter. Electronic applications, communication and infrastructure merge together to create a brave new world of possibilities: welcome to the digital lifestyle. A program specially developed for business customers focuses on the much-needed additional business opportunities generated by the convergent product worlds of IT/telecoms and consumer electronics. Together with the displays by individual exhibitors, these specially targeted presentations are designed to motivate business customers to seize these opportunities for themselves and develop appropriate marketing strategies. Each of the four presentation platforms is approached through its own dedicated hospitality area, where product placement is given high priority.

"digital living" is divided into four themed zones as follows:

• TV & Entertainment (Television, Video, Home Cinema, Home Solutions, Media, Photography, Film, Audio, Hi-fi, Professional Audio & Video Systems)
• PC & Games (Personal Computers, Games Consoles, Hardware, Software, Home Office, Edutainment, Infotainment, Modding)
• Communications & Infrastructure (Telecommunications, Broadband, Internet, Terrestrial Broadcasting, Satellite, Cable, Digital Broadcasting, Networks, Home Automation, Home Security)
• Mobile (Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Media, Mobile Office, In-Car Audio, Car Media, Navigation, Wearable Electronics)

Focus on business: information unlimited

The four themed presentation platforms will each host a special program of events. Well-known TV presenters will be working together with sales coaches, trade press journalists, analysts and famous guests. They'll be presenting not only the technical solutions on offer, but also giving valuable marketing advice and identifying sales opportunities in special training sessions for dealers and retailers. Meanwhile the scalability and the many technical possibilities of convergent technology will be explained to the end customer in a convincing and entertaining way.

This unique combination of sales training and schooling in the products and technical solutions will continue throughout the day in each of the four themed zones, and will provide resellers in particular with the kind of practical grounding they need. They can then take this know-how away with them and put it to good use immediately in their everyday business dealings.

To round off the program there will be celebrity guest appearances, live transmissions and recordings of variety acts, and visits from famous TV stars.

Games & More

Gaming enthusiasts will not be disappointed either, not least because "digital living" is co-hosting the national heats of the World Cyber Games. The German national team will be battling for supremacy here in the global gaming arena. Sponsored by Samsung, this event will be the main attraction for German computer gamers at "digital living" in March 2006, and a landmark date once again in the business calendar of the thriving global gaming industry.