HONG KONG--It wasn’t by accident that visitors to Hitachi’s booth at ITU Telecom World 2006 were awed by the display of a 60-inch plasma video display, featuring High Definition service. The product, which actually comes out next year, is an example of how Hitachi’s expertise in consumer electronics is now melding nicely with its telecom prowess.

“Hitachi is very good at consumer electronics,”said Tetsuo Takemura, chief operating officer of Information & Technology systems for Hitachi.

The ITU exhibit featured Hitachi’s consumer electronics but also its Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) gear and its routers, services and serivce delivery platform.

“As the industry is looking to do triple play, we are working together to make a solution,” Takemura said. “The TV will connect to the network now and we are creating home servers that will be in the home arena.”

But video services are not the only focus as Hitachi also looks to deliver seamless communications systems with built-in security that enable enterprise customers “to work anywhere--at a home office, in the hot air or at the airport,” Takemura said. “There are several component technologies for this, and we make more of those components” than most telecom players.

For example, he said. Hitachi is developing a portable Digital Video Recorder which can be combined with a DVR service--a consumer plugs the portable device into a home TV DVR and downloads a favorite show, then takes in on an airplane or into a hotel room and can play the recorded content on a PC or other display.

“We have to build digital rights management into that kind of platform to provide the security necessary to protect intellectual property,” Takemura said.

In its native Japan, Hitachi is engaged with NTT and others in the rapid replacement of copper lines with fiber optics, he said. “In Japan, we started with ADSL and now we are shifting to fiber,” he said. “The total number of ADSL lines is greater, but the growth numbers for fiber are greater. In Japan, we have to invest in infrastructure with the long-term view – ADSL has limitatitions, depending on distance as well as long-term copper maintenance costs, especially with all the installations that are more than 20 years old. We are having to replace the media, so it is being restored with fiber. NTT has installed a huge number of fibers with ONTs [Optical Network Terminals] – dark fiber.”

NTT is also adopting Gigabit Ethernet PON systems, while the U.S. and Europe are leaning more to GPONs, he said.

“The interface on GPON, which is an ITU standard, has higher bandwidth and QoS,”he said. “Japan started earlier which is why they are doing GePON. In the U.S., which is starting later, GPON is a good solution for them.”