Before you start imagining some kind of far-flung 'house of the future', all glowing neon and smooth metallic surfaces, let's just make one thing clear: the so-called digital home is very much a phenomenon of today's world not tomorrow's, and it's quite possible that your own living space is already a long way down the road to digital domestic bliss.

Several new technologies have emerged over the past few years that have helped to transform the way in which we live, making everyday tasks easier, and augmenting our enjoyment of leisure-time activities; PCs, home networking, wireless streaming and home cinema to name but a few. These technologies are now affordable and simple to use, which has meant that more of us can benefit from what they have to offer.

We'll be looking at exactly what makes up the digital home and how it can improve your world. And we'll be taking you on a tour of a real digital household in action - the Microsoft Home in London - so that you can witness first-hand the software company's vision of 21st century living.

Get connected
If your household has a PC in it, then you're well on the way to turning your home digital. Computers have become less and less about boring things like doing the monthly household accounts or typing up the odd letter; the modern PC is a digital hub for a whole raft of leisure and entertainment activities.

You might use it to store and edit photos that you've taken on your digital camera, for example, watch movies or create a vast library of digital music.

But this is just the start. Your PC has a huge amount of potential, particularly when it's connected to a broadband internet connection and to other devices around your home.

As a concept, networking itself might not sound that interesting, but the ability to listen to your music or browse through your photos wherever you are in the house is an instantly appealing option.

And once you start twinning these features with a decent hi-fi setup and television set in your living room, along with various similar screens, speaker systems and other outlets around your home, it's not hard to see the benefits of a fully networked household.

And that, effectively, is the backbone of the digital home. No robot Hoovers, no jet packs, no hover boots - just a wired or wireless network that allows you to share information, internet access, applications and media around your home, helping to control your environment and allowing you the freedom to enjoy pictures, music and movies wherever you go.

Home sweet home
In April this year, Microsoft opened the doors to its living, breathing digital lifestyle experiment, the Microsoft Home, or M.home for short. The company took an 'ordinary' five-storey house in Notting Hill and kitted it out with the latest cutting-edge technology in order to demonstrate the digital home in action.

But, unlike the company's previous foray into this area (the e.home in Seattle), the west London Microsoft Home was not going to be a Tomorrow's World-style show home for prototypes and experimental technologies of the future.

Microsoft's self-imposed rules meant that all the products demonstrated had to be currently available at regular high-street shops or online at Amazon and everything on show had to be as affordable as possible.

Microsoft Home is a "seeing is believing" experience, Cynthia Crossley, Microsoft's director of Windows Client Group told us. "While it's exciting to future-gaze at what could be possible in five or even 10 years' time, it's great to be able to see what is available for all consumers now," she explained.

The home isn't open to the public, however, and only a select few of Microsoft's friends and business partners have thus far been allowed through the gilded portal to gaze upon the delights within. Thankfully, Active Home was lucky enough to receive a personal invitation from the chaps at Microsoft, and we were treated to a complete before-and-after tour of the premises.

A normal house
Spread across five rooms in the house, the demonstration took us from the living room to the master bedroom, via the kitchen, the children's bedroom and the 'den'. The first thing we noticed, apart from the astonishing opulence of the double-fronted W10 town house that Microsoft had "borrowed" from a real family to house its demo, was how unassuming the technological element actually was.

Indeed, none of the rooms looked, at first glance anyway, unusually high-tech in any way. This was helped by the fact that all the devices in the house were connected via a very discreet wireless network, with BT Voyager wireless routers and access points extending access around the home without the need for unsightly cabling.

Even so, the lack of visible gadgetry was, at first, somewhat surprising. The living room, for example, had a rather nice Sharp Aqueos LCD television tastefully taking up very little room in one corner but, other than that, there appeared to be very little else that particularly screamed 'digital'.

Cynthia Crossley explains again: "The Microsoft Home is not about imposing a lifestyle, but fitting and adapting to the lifestyle people already have. We've managed to incorporate the technology in a way that doesn't encroach on the everyday home."

On closer inspection, the Sharp flat panel in the living room revealed itself to be the main access point for an Elonex Artisan PC, running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. This new version of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system plays a major role in the firm's vision of the digital home, since it provides a way of bringing many of the digital activities traditionally associated with the desktop slap-bang into the middle of the living room.

But do people really want a whole PC in their front rooms? Well, Media Center computers come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, many of which wouldn't look at all out of place in the living-room. It would be easy, for example, to mistake the Elonex Artisan sitting under the TV in M.home's front room for, say, a high-end DVD player.

And it's not just about aesthetics. Windows Media Center PCs are designed to replace many of the devices that we pile up under our tellies, giving you the same functions - DVD player, video recorder, games console, home cinema sound system and suchlike - all from a single box.

Continue reading this article in Part 2 >