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Tag: wirelesshd

  • VIZIO Selects WirelessHD for New Line of LCD HDTVs and Wireless HDMI Adapters

    VIZIO announced that it has chosen to add WirelessHD technology and SiBEAM 60 GHz chipsets, based on the globally available WirelessHD standard, for a new line of LCD HDTVs and wireless HDMI adapters.

    VIZIO is also in the process of joining WirelessHD as an Adopter with the intent of incorporating WirelessHD technology into a wide range of product offerings for the consumer.

    SiBEAM is a fabless semiconductor company developing intelligent millimeter wave technologies. The company is the first to build 60 GHz chipsets using CMOS technology. The first of many applications for SiBEAM’s innovative technology is based on WirelessHD.

    As with its first generation chipsets, SiBEAM’s second generation transmitter and receiver chipsets employ SiBEAM’s OmniLink60 adaptive beam-forming systems. According to the firm, these systems dynamically steer content to the specific receiving station, maintaining stable connectivity regardless of any obstacles that may obstruct its path, all while delivering the “highest quality” wireless A/V and data.

    By operating at 60 GHz, the chipsets do not interfere with Wi-Fi 802.11g, 802.11n, and cordless telephone systems operating at 2.4 and 5 GHz. All SiBEAM chipsets offer data rates 20 times faster than other available options and remain the only standards based wireless technology that can transmit A/V at 4 Gbps over the air, as the company claims.

    VIZIO will demonstrate WirelessHD technology using chipsets from SiBEAM in their new line of XVT Pro LCD LED HDTVs this week during the 2010 CES. SiBEAM will also be showing a WirelessHD-powered VIZIO LCD TV and Blu-ray player.

    “Our customers seek out VIZIO products for their combination of advanced performance, function, form and most of all unequalled value,” said Matthew McRae, VIZIO VP of Products.

    “Working together with SiBEAM, we’re thrilled to introduce WirelessHD-based products to our customers who want a complete, high quality wireless entertainment experience with easier and faster setup. By incorporating WirelessHD into a range of new products, VIZIO will be among the first to introduce wireless solutions to the mainstream market.”

    VIZIO’s first WirelessHD-based products are expected to be available to consumers later this year.

  • SiBeam CEO Welcomes Wireless HD "Competition"

    INTERVIEW: With a third group now entering the race to deliver a high-speed wireless technology in the home – and wireless HDTV products hitting the market – momentum is building.

    John LeMoncheck, president and CEO of SiBEAM, and a leading member of the WirelessHD (WiHD) consortium, tells hdtv.biz-news that he welcomes the addition of the rival Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) Alliance to the fray.

    Over the past few years a number of wireless technologies have announced their intention to rid homes of cables and stream content around the home.

    Their number was enlarged recently when the newly formed WiGig Alliance declared that it is to develop a high-bandwidth wireless specification before the year end.

    The fact this group has the backing of household names such as Microsoft, LG, Dell, Samsung, Marvell, Nokia, NEC, Intel and Broadcom (among others), might have been cause enough for the competing groups to worry.

    But WiGig’s plans to use the 60 GHz spectrum would have been a particular worry for the WirelessHD (WiHD) consortium, which also uses 60 GHz to send signals.

    Not so, said John LeMoncheck, president and CEO of SiBEAM, and a leading member of WiHD.

    He told hdtv.biz-news that, in general, WiGig’s arrival was very good for the 60 GHz spectrum.

    "This is the way in which the rest of the wireless world is going," he said. "There is room for multiple uses of the spectrum."

    For LeMoncheck the adoption of the 60 GHz spectrum is also something of a personal vindication.

    "When we first started talking about 60 GHz, they laughed me out of the meeting," he said.

    "Now it is satisfying to see the big guys focusing on this technology."

    He added: "There’s not a better or more cost-effective way to do this."

    Growing Interest

    WiGig joining the other competing groups – WiHD and the Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) – also highlights the growing interest in wireless technologies.

    However, LeMoncheck said he would question whether WiGig was actually in direct competition with WiHD – which he described as very consumer electronics focused.

    "WiGig have not been able to clearly elucidate what they want," he said.

    "They are trying to be a lot of things to a lot of people, which can lead to a standard that’s not any use to anyone."

    That’s definitely not the case with WiHD, according to LeMoncheck, who said he was very happy with the progress being made.

    This year has seen the first WiHD-enabled products come to market in Japan and Korea, with launches from Panasonic, LG and Toshiba.

    Panasonic’s Z1 WirelessHD Plasma

    He said more HDTVs are going to be launched in the US and Europe this summer.

    "It has been a very exciting first half of the year for the rollout of the product," he said.

    "We are working hard to have products come out and work seamlessly."

    This has included publishing compliance test procedures in January – tests that all products have to pass before being able to carry the WiHD logo.

    And facilities offering WiHD testing are now also operational.

    A further boost has come from Philips joining the WiHD consortium as a promoter company.

    This brings the total number of promoter companies up to 10 and there are 40 firms associated with the WiHD standard.

    Pieces in Place

    "All the infrastructure is there to bring products to market," said LeMoncheck.

    "We have had tremendous traction in the market and other tier 1 guys should be launching in the fall."

    While products using the WiHD technology are in the high-to-mid range price bracket, LeMoncheck said they were working on bringing the cost down.

    The use of general-purpose complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology is expected to help with this, and he expected to see products in 42" range and lower as a result.

    "We can pick very friendly CMOS geometry, so we have room to migrate down as smaller geometry gets further down the cost curve," he said.

    "We can cut a lot of the cost from a system."

    That will undoubtedly be welcomed by consumers – as will the fact that wireless-enabled products are finally making their way onto the shelves.

  • 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.