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Tag: whdi

  • AMIMON Introduces Wireless HD Modules for the Notebook Market

    AMIMON, a fabless semiconductor company that specialize in HD solutions, announced the availability of its WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface) modules which can be embedded into notebook and netbook enabling a wireless HD connection from PCs to HDTVs.

    Earlier introduced, the company’s WHDI allows flat-panel televisions and multimedia projectors to wirelessly interface to all HDTV video sources at a quality equivalent to that achieved with wired interfaces such as component video, DVI and HDMI.

    Newly released modules are available with a mini-PCI form-factor of 50mm*30mm and will also be offered with a standard Display-Mini card form-factor of 44.4mm*26mm based on the interface defined by the PCI SIG which uses Displayport.

    Additionally, these cards are designed for the WHDI standard and are capable of wirelessly delivering full uncompressed 1080p/60Hz HD content throughout the entire home, as the company claims.

    Notebook PCs embedded with the new WHDI modules are expected to be in the market in 2010 offering the ability to connect notebook wirelessly to any WHDI-enabled HDTV or, through an external WHDI-to-HDMI adaptor, also to any HDTV.

    AMIMON says the new modules will also enable external wireless PC-to-TV accessories (‘dongles’) which connect to the PC and TV via HDMI.

    The WHDI modules are based on the newly developed video modem technology operating in the 5GHz unlicensed band. WHDI co-exists in the same frequency spectrum with Wi-Fi and uses similar RF building blocks and antennas.

    It synergies with Wi-Fi enable a roadmap to integrated WHDI + Wi-Fi semiconductor components which is said to offer notebook OEMs the prospect of a low cost WHDI wireless HD link to the TV.

    According to the firm, the WHDI Modules key features include support for full high definition resolutions up to 1080p/60Hz, Hollywood approved HDCP 2.0 copy protection, 5GHz unlicensed band with support for Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS), compact form-factor, practically no latency (less than 1 millisecond) and low power consumption modes for portable devices.

    Noam Geri, vice president of marketing and business development for AMIMON believes WHDI is gaining momentum with TV OEMs. “Now also PC OEMs set to offer consumers multiple WHDI enabled products in 2010,” he said.

  • Amimon Raises $10 Million on Back of Strong WHDI Performance


    Wireless HD chipmaker Amimon has raised USD $10 million in its latest round of funding.

    The Israeli company’s announcement as demand for HDTVs capable of wirelessly transferring HD video from one device in the home continues to grow.

    Led by Stata Venture Partners the funding round also includes previous backers Argonaut Private Equity, Cedar Fund, Evergreen Venture Partners, Walden Israel and Motorola Ventures.

    The company said it has developed six different chips to date with its prior funding, including a new chip based on the WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface) standard.

    Its first-generation product is performing well, both in consumer electronics devices and in medical imaging equipment.

    Customers include Sony, Sharp, Mitsubishi, Gefen, Belkin, Stryker (medical devices), IDX (Pro AV video cameras), Philips, and Hinsense.

    The second-generation WHDI chip set improves on the first in that it can transfer full HD video – defined as video in the 1080p format running at 60 frames per second.

    The previous chip set could only do 1080i video at slower speeds.

    The new chip set is compliant with the Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) industry standard and is expected to ship in customer products in 2010.

    Rival SiBEAM uses a different technology, based on the 60-gigahertz band of the radio spectrum, with higher speeds but shorter ranges.

    Yoav Nissan-Cohen, chairman and CEO of AMIMON, said the company is experiencing "strong acceptance" of the newly introduced 1080p/60Hz chipset.

    "The additional funding will allow Amimon to seize this opportunity to solidify our leadership position," he said.

    "We will use this round of funding to enhance production and expand our worldwide operations to meet growing global demand for our technology in the consumer electronics market as well as the medical and professional video markets."

  • 802.11n Wi-Fi Will Dominate Wireless HD Video


    802.11n Wi-fi technology will see off competitors in the wireless HD video market, at least for the next several years, according to In-Stat .

    Three other technologies are competing in this space – Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI), WirelessHD, and Ultrawideband (UWB).

    However, Brian O’Rourke, In-Stat analyst, said the ubiquity of Wi-Fi technology is proving unstoppable.

    He said 802.11n is the next generation of the immensely popular Wi-Fi family.

    "It promises data rates above 100Mbps and is backwards compatible," he said.

    "The installed base of Wi-Fi is immense, and effectively includes all mobile PCs, many mobile phones and a wide variety of CE devices.

    O’Rourke said the primary drawback to 802.11n is expense, since it requires codec technology on both ends to transmit HD video.

    Neither of its primary competitors, WHDI and WirelessHD, requires codecs.

    Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

    • UWB will not be a major factor in the consumer electronics market. Many chip companies are leaving the market in late 2008 and 2009.
    • Nearly 24 million digital TVs will ship with some type of Wireless HD video technology in 2013.
    • WHDI and WirelessHD are being promoted by startups, but they are new, expensive, and power-hungry, which is generally not a recipe for quick market success.
    • WHDI and WirelessHD will see a slow start, with fewer than eight million devices with those technologies shipped in 2013.

  • Coming Year Important for New Wireless HDTV Products

    Wireless High Definition Special: Over the coming weeks hdtv.biz-news.com will be interviewing representatives from the competing wireless high definition TV systems to assess their current state of readiness and future viability.

    To kick things off, Steve Wilson, principal analyst at ABI Research, which recently produced a report Wireless Video Cable Replacement Market and Technologies, gives his opinion on wireless HDTV developments.

    The end-of-year shopping season, followed by the annual CES trade show in January, will give the next indications of the likely short-term prospects for wireless high-definition television systems in the consumer space.

    Holiday sales of existing products and new product announcements at CES will help paint a picture as to which of several competing systems – if any – is likely to lead the charge towards wide consumer acceptance of wireless HDTV.

    There are three contending technologies, loosely characterized as: 5 GHz, 60 GHz, and ultra-wideband (UWB).

    Small numbers of 5 GHz and UWB devices are currently shipping; demo products of 60 GHz systems are expected early next year.

    “Over the next two to three years, we’re going to see one or two of these wireless HDTV approaches emerge as the primary ones,” said Wilson.

    Two industry groups have emerged to promote 5 GHZ and 60 GHz solutions.

    Israeli company Amimon, around whose technology the 5 GHz platforms are based, took an initiative in July, forming the WHDI Special Interest Group, which has been joined by Hitachi, Motorola, Sharp, Samsung and Sony.
    Hedging their bets, the latter two vendors are also members of the competing industry body, WirelessHD, which is intended to promote the 60 Hz approach designed by SiBEAM, Inc.

    Other members of WirelessHD include Intel, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric, NEC and Toshiba.

    Samsung is said to believe that WHDI should be seen as a stopgap technology until WirelessHD becomes “the ultimate solution in the long run”.

    But until then, Wilson believes “the WHDI group has the early momentum”.

    He continued: “Announcements at CES of systems using the 60 GHz band will give some indication of whether consumer products will actually make it to market in 2009.

    “The coming year will be a very important period for the introduction of all types of new wireless high-definition TV products.”

  • Race towards wireless HD hots up

    Sony and Samsung join new consortium supporting technology that could replace tangle of video cables with wireless transmission of HD video

    A group of consumer electronics manufacturers and wireless technology firms has joined forces to develop a new standard that could send HD video signals wirelessly from a set-top box to screens around the home.

    The consortium – comprising Sony, Sharp, Samsung, Amimon, Hitachi and Motorola – expects to have specifications for its Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) technology finalised by the end of the year.

    Based on technology from Amimon Ltd of Israel, WHDI is the latest addition in the race to replace video cable.
    A key ingredient of WHDI technology is a new video-modem that operates in the 5GHz unlicensed band to enable robust wireless delivery of uncompressed HD video (including 1080p).

    WHDI allows secure, encrypted HD video delivery through multiple rooms and other potential signal obstructions, such as people and furniture, while maintaining superb quality and robustness with less than one-millisecond latency.

    The consortium plans to enhance the current WHDI technology to enable wireless streaming of uncompressed HD video and audio between CE devices such as LCD and plasma HDTVs, multimedia projectors, A/V receivers, DVD and BD players, set-top boxes, game consoles, and PCs.

    The new interoperable standard aims to ensure that CE devices manufactured by different vendors will simply and directly connect to one another.

    TVs with Amimon’s chips could reach stores by next year, costing about US$100 more than equivalent, non-wireless sets.

    Noam Geri, co-founder of Amimon, said: “If you have a TV in the home, that TV will be able to access any source in the home, whether it’s a set-top box in the living room, or the PlayStation in the bedroom, or a DVD player in another bedroom. That’s the message of WHDI.”

    The quest for wireless streaming of high-definition video has seen various contenders emerge.
    Among them is WirelessHD, centered on technology from SiBEAM Inc, of which Sony also forms part of the group to enable it to have “wider options”.

    Another hopeful is ultra-wideband, or UWB, which requires less compression than Wi-Fi but its range is more limited.
    WHDI is less exotic than either WirelessHD or UWB. It uses a radio band at 5 gigahertz that’s used by some Wi-Fi devices.

    Motorola has looked at competing technologies, but WHDI is the only group it has joined.
    The company plans to build the technology into its set-top boxes, but the first product is likely be a pair of adapters that talk wirelessly to one another. One could be attached to a set-top box, the other to a TV set.