A group of high-powered technology companies teamed up Tuesday to say they would work on developing a specification for connecting high-definition devices like HDTVs, disc players, digital video cameras, and game consoles wirelessly to eliminate the clutter of cables.
LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), NEC, Samsung Electronics, SiBeam, Sony, and Toshiba plan to collaborate on the spec for a wireless high-definition digital interface technology, known as WirelessHD, through a working group they are forming.
They plan to actively promote the technology and present the WirelessHD spec and format next spring.
The market for HD devices is growing, and is bound to increase even more as consumers make their holiday purchases of the latest electronics. The research firm In-Stat predicts that global sales of devices with a high-speed digital A/V interface will grow to 495 million units in 2009 from 60 million this year.
But connecting all these devices presents a big headache for many consumers since they have to deal with an ever expanding glut of wires snaking across the living room carpet. Many items such as wall-mounted plasma screen TV sets already require professionals to install them.
The group behind WirelessHD hopes to make the process of installing the equipment less challenging for consumers so they will be more willing to purchase new equipment.
Brian O’Rourke, a senior analyst with In-Stat/MDR, said in a statement that he expects to see WirelessHD appear first in adapter products, followed by digital TVs and projectors, DVD players, and set-top boxes. “Other potential markets include game consoles and portable devices,” he added.
Home Broadband Going Wireless
The WirelessHD technology will play into the trend of increasing broadband connectivity and Wi-Fi connections around the home.
To be sure, WirelessHD will place heavy demands on wireless connectivity, requiring multi-gigabit data rates for uncompressed video streaming.
However, the companies behind the format believe they have developed technologies that can overcome these limitations while offering relatively low cost, improved image quality, and higher performance.
The goal is to provide interoperability among all the different devices from the various manufacturers, along with smart antenna technology that can get around the line-of-sight constraints in the unlicensed 60-gigahertz band.
The companies also hope to make the communications secure so outsiders can’t simply access another home’s digital HD signals and programming for free. The technology requires error protection and timing control techniques to make sure it all looks like the way it would over a wired connection.
He does not expect the spec to be submitted to any standards bodies immediately, like the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), although that may happen later. WirelessHD plans to make the spec compatible with other IEEE standards under development, though.
“As HD grows in demand and interest, more devices will become HD capable and you will see this flow into those,” he said.
John Marshall, chair of WirelessHD, sees the spec growing to encompass a multitude of devices and wants to enlist support from other consumer electronics manufacturers besides the ones initially on board.
Contact the writer:MCohn@RedHerring.comdel.icio.us
Digg this
Slash it