Special Report: The Future of Digital Entertainment/Creating Convergence; November 2000; Scientific American Magazine; by Peter Forman, Robert W. Saint John; 7 Page(s)

The 1939 New York World's Fair featured a formal debut of television broadcast, but the receiver inside the RCA Pavilion was way ahead of its time. The appliance was a combination television-radio-recorder-playbackfacsimile-projector set that, in hindsight, suggests that we humans have a fundamental desire to merge all media into one entity. Today this goal has a name: convergence, the union of audio, video and data communications into a single source, received on a single device, delivered by a single connection.

Predicted for decades, convergence is finally emerging, albeit in haphazard fashion. Wireless phones, personal computers and televisions are beginning to take on one another's functions. More important, the patterns by which we are interconnecting these gadgets indicate that we are ready for convergence to sweep us off our feet. Once it does, all forms of digital entertainment will morph into one big stream of bits. We will be able to enjoy movies, TV shows, Internet video, and music on our home theater, computer or wristwatch wherever we are, whenever we want. All that is required is that equipment makers and standards bodies agree on such details as broadband distribution, copyright protection and compatible displays. No small task.