Orange and LaCie join forces to launch "Home Library", "The" digital library for the general public

Orange and LaCie, a major player of external data storage, have combined their expertise and capacity for innovation in the digital home field to develop "Home Library", which will be released in France from 10 October. The result of the first manufacturer/operator partnership in this field, this multimedia content server for the general public consists of the LaCie Internet Space network hard drive and the Orange Home Library software. It is the first time that an operator has integrated a family digital library with remote access into its product line-up.

Neil Poulton created the compact, elegant design of the digital library fits in perfectly with the Orange Livebox environment.

"Digital content (photos, videos, music) are taking on greater importance and a large volume of space in family life. With Home Library, Orange et LaCie have joined forces to provide an innovative product that is easy to use and accessible to everyone. This cutting-edge technology enables users to store and share multimedia content within the family”, said Yves Tyrode, Manager of the Orange Technocentre.

"The teams at Orange and LaCie have jointly developed a product that is easy to install and that fits in perfectly to the Livebox environment garanteeing a secure remote access to data stored on the Home Library”, added Pierre Van Der Elst, General Manager of LaCie.

This association of the LaCie Internet Space network hard drive, which is based on the HipServTM technology, with Orange’s Home Library software provides a capacity of 500 Gb. This enables the whole family’s multimedia content to be stored, centralised and shared: videos, photos, music and documents. Launched at a price of €149, VAT included, this digital library is available from www.orange.fr and from major IT distributors.

With a simple, intuitive, user-friendly interface, the Home Library software has been specially designed to fit in seamlessly with the Livebox environment. It is possible for users to log on to the Orange portal while on the move by means of their personal identification key. For example, with a single click, users can add content from Home Library to "My Data", the Orange online storage service. The customer has permanent access to his or her content when connected to the Internet whatever the location – at home or while traveling. Access is available from multimedia readers such as a Liveradio, a computer with Windows Mediaplayer or any other equipment supporting the UpnP/DLNA standard. Finally, it is possible to transform an individual printer into a network printer by connecting it to Home Library.

With Home Library, the entire family’s content is centralised on one storage space, replacing a variety of support media (CD ROMs, external hard drives, USB keys, etc.) thus avoiding the risk of loss. Content stored on the Home Library family space can be easily shared between the various electronic devices in the home, while content stored in private files is protected with a password. For greater peace of mind, Home Library also has an automatic function that backs up data on all computers in the home.

Source: Orange