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It s a Wonderful Michael, a devoted trend-setter, spends his days as Huawei s senior marketing manager. Since becoming acquainted with Multi-Play, he has found it integral to both his work and family life. Let s step into Michael s shoes and take a look at what Multi-Play can offer. 17 AUG 2007 ISSUE 32
World with Multi-PlayBy Hu Xianghui Capturing the flavors of Elate pudding A fter getting up at 6:50 in the morning, Michael s wife, Sarah, had already finished preparing a tasty breakfast, the highlight of which was Elate pudding, delivering as it did a slice of coolness to battle the summer heat. Michael was forthcoming with his praise: Honey, fantastic! When did you learn to make this? Sarah reached for her mobile and explained that an IPTV show revealed the secret the previous night, and that she had had the wisdom to record it. Her phone s play back function allowed her to practice in her own time the next morning by pausing and resuming the recording in order to master the dishes more tricky aspects. The pudding went down extremely well with Michael and, before devouring it all, he was quick to take a photo, which he uploaded to his blog to share with his foodie friends. It wasn t long before his surprised friend Frank sent a video message exclaiming, Hi, Michael, I saw your breakfast online. Nice! AUG 2007 ISSUE 32 18
It s a wonderful world with Multi-Play The flexibility of Multi-Play allows users the freedom to access chosen programs via different terminals whenever the mood takes. Plus, the record and play back functions in users terminals enable content to be uploaded and retrieved by friends using their own terminals. An intelligent mobile phone showing directions A few days later, Michael was preparing for a business trip to London to visit a number of clients. Sarah decided to take their daughter Lily to kindergarten before dropping Michael off at the airport. A master of planning, Sarah switched on the TV to check the traffic information channel, and input her desired route: Beijing Road - Baicaoyuan Kindergarten - Airport. Several routes were displayed with estimated drive times, as well as information about other methods of reaching the airport. Braving the early morning traffic, the GPS in Sarah s intelligent mobile phone guided her through the route she had by TV. The destination information interacted with the control center at any given location through which she was passing, and the system forecasted traffic changes by calculating Sarah s driving speed. It then downloaded this information to her phone allowing her to anticipate traffic jams and take an alternate route if needed. On the way Michael remembered he d missed the morning news as Lily had thoughtfully liberated his mobile to do jigsaw puzzles. Michael, no technophobe himself, quickly utilized the phone s play back function to catch up on the latest world events. Integrating GPS navigation, location positioning and intelligent forecast functions, Multi-Play brings some welcome ease and convenience to users hectic daily schedules. Office work at any time and any place At eight in the morning Michael answered a business call from Nick, the Product Manager in Huawei s London representative office. Hi, Michael, we need a video document about our products global applications. As the plane was boarding in less than half an hour, Michael had no time to fetch the document and so immediately contacted his secretary Angel who, given the early hour, was not in the office. However, this proved not to be a problem. Angel used her mobile phone to upload the document to the company server and then send the link directly to Nick for immediate access. Nick quickly contacted Michael: I ve got the file, thanks. The video conference is now underway, so join us if it s convenient. Michael selected OK to link to the video conference site, and was greeted by the London project team discussing the meeting with their customer that was to take place the day after next. Soon, it was time for boarding. Michael saved the video information and readied himself for his trip to London. On arrival, he reviewed the video conference via his mobile phone and familiarized himself with its content, which included task allocation for the project team. Multi-Play s mcentre portal delivers user information m a n a g e m e n t, i n s t a n t messaging, voice and video services so that people can communicate and cooperate at any time and any place. Indeed, this allowed Michael to be briefed and ready to go before setting foot in the office. Care for the family wherever you are After arriving at the London office, Michael checked his PC and entered Baby Online. He found a lively Lily doing a jigsaw puzzle on her school bed when she needed to take a nap with the other kids, which Michael fully intended to make happen even if he was on the other side of the world. Putting his serious face on, he said to his daughter: Lily, daddy saw you playing game under your duvet. Be a good girl and go to sleep. Otherwise, I ll tell your teacher. An annoyed Lily reluctantly stashed her PDA and duly went to sleep. Wondering what Sarah was doing, he switched to Family Guardian, a handy home video monitoring service. He was greeted by a peaceful scene showing an angelic Lily watering flowers. This prompted him to take a photo and upload it to his blog. Soon Sarah heard the song Lucky Three Treasures emanating from the video telephone followed by a voice message from Michael, Darling, go to my blog and see what I just sent you. Sarah clicked the link on the video telephone and saw her husband watching her affectionately, a photo of her watering their flowers, and their daughter asleep in her kindergarten. Though the three of them were in different places, the video technology allowed them to be reunited. Multi-Play c o m b i n e s 19 AUG 2007 ISSUE 32
instant messaging, multimedia messaging, video monitoring and Avatar functions, effectively linking time and space. Wherever they are, users can be linked with their family at any time. Information wizard The next day scheduled Michael for a visit to his first company where he was to meet Allan, the CMO. The two had a catch-up chat, before embarking on business matters. Michael later invited Allan to dinner. He chose the item Just Follow Me on his mobile phone. The screen displayed a map of the area of Michael s current location, and provided information about the area s many restaurants with the advice: Based on your food and drink records, age and profession, we recommend the following restaurants The barbecue at Ritz hotel looked great, and was also Allan s preferred choice. Michael clicked the restaurant s link and reserved two window seats. A moment later he received the message: Your have made a reservation. Please enter the restaurant with the following barcode. The following is today s menu, recommendations and discount information. You can order now. As this is your first time to our restaurant, we would like to offer you a dessert for free. Michael ordered the main course and desserts via his mobile phone, and input his arrival time. Dinner and parking expenses were recorded on the 2D barcode, and paid for via the mobile phone. A triumph of convenience and a highly effective timesaving medium, Michael considered just how cool Multi-Play actually is. Multi-Play integrates communications, media information, adverts and payments. As Michael found, users can access personalized information, make flexible payments and take the hard work out of a trip to the restaurant, and other day to day activities. Having fun with VOD After a full day s work, Michael returned to his hotel and decided to relax with the very popular Prison Break. The story was reaching its climax and Lincoln was about to be executed. Michael selected Video Call on the TV and dialed Frank s number: Hey Frank, I m watching Prison Break what are you up to? Things are just hotting up. Frank, however, wasn t watching the show and, being a fan himself, asked Michael to forward the episode to his mobile. A prompt was given instructing Frank to choose to watch via his mobile or TV. He selected TV, which switched to another channel and allowed Frank to watch Lincoln s execution which was thankfully deferred after the judge received new evidence! The balance of hope and desperation, reflected Frank sagely. After the episode finished, Michael and Frank thought further discussion was called for and dialed up the show s chat room, before switching their respective TVs channels to participate in discussions with a wealth of other Prison Break aficionados. The network capability of Multi-Play enables users to share video programs and also attend interactive programs. Distance is no longer an obstacle separating friends and family members, which is especially useful with a show as addictive as Prison Break! A family doctor just for you At 10 p.m., Lily suddenly felt ill, and Sarah became increasingly worried. She immediately turned on the TV and connected to their family doctor: Hi, Jacky - it s Sarah. Lily s not feeling well. Please have a look at her. Jacky access Lily s temperature and blood pressure through the sensor linked with TV. Based on previous medical records in the database and the screen medical examination, Jacky diagnosed that Lily had a cold and prescribed the appropriate medicine. Sarah used her mobile to search for drugstores in order to send the nearest prescription. The medicine was delivered with remarkable speed and efficiency. After taking some medicine, Lily fell into a deep sleep. A relieved Sarah took a photo of Lily and sent it to Michael to tell him Lily is very good today. Multi-Play enables video transfer and a rapid response, enabling super efficient services and convenience, which is particularly welcome in times of emergency. The future is the present The mutual penetration and integration of the fixed and mobile communications, media, Internet and terminal industries has given birth to a Multi-Play world. In this world, the Multi-Screen experience gives users an unprecedented amount of freedom, convenience and Multi-Media communication possibilities. Editor: Chen Yuhong chyhong@huawei.com AUG 2007 ISSUE 32 20