Wireless HDTV set for 2009
SiBEAM snags deep-pocket partners
Those déclassé wires tethering your wide-screen TV to your set-top box or Blu-Ray drive may finally disappear when ultra-wideband HDTV sets hit the market later this year, thanks to a group of announcements at this year's CES.
According to a report by the IEE Times, wireless-chip designer SiBEAM "snagged three major design wins with top TV makers" - namely LG Electronics, Panasonic, and Toshiba.
SiBEAM also announced today that its SB9120 WirelessHD HRTX Transmit Network Processor and SB9121 WirelessHD HRRX Receive Network Processor have recently begun volume production. These 60GHz ultra-wideband CMOS chips are based on the company's OmniLink60 technology, which complies with the WirelessHD 1.0 spec published by the WirelessHD group.
The concept of wireless HDTV isn't new. A number of technologies designed to accomplish this feat were demonstrated in 2008, including WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface), used in Sony's Bravia ZX1, and Pulse~Link's CWave, used in Westinghouse's Digital Wireless HDMI HDTV demonstrated at last year's CES along with SiBEAM's own demonstration of WirelessHD prototypes. Amimon demonstrated its 1.36Gbps wireless HDTV technology as long ago as CES 2007 and now claims 3Gbps performance with its WHDI implementation.
What is new and notable, according to SiBEAM, is that the now-in-mass-production SB9120 and SB9121 "are the first and only option" that can support "video resolutions from 480p/60Hz to 1080p/60Hz, uncompressed and lossless" due to their claimed data rate of 4Gbps. Also, the company claims that since the SB9120 and SB9121 are CMOS-based chips, they can be "affordable for the mass market."
Finally, SiBEAM says that its OmniLink60 technology has solved the problems created by the highly directional nature of 60GHz transmission, since it can "automatically find the best bounce off of walls, ceilings, floors, or any other object in the room, to allow non-line-of-sight communication."
We'll have to wait until all the competing technologies ship consumer-ready products to see which provides the image quality, ease-of-use, and signal integrity needed to conquer the world's living rooms. Fortunately, that doesn't appear to be a long wait, as it appears that there's going to be plenty of competition this year.
In a related development, SiBEAM also demonstrated wireless Gigabit Ethernet based on its chipset. Although the company itself "does not plan to productize this design," wireless Gigabit Ethernet could some day allow not only high-speed WLAN performance, but also allow PCs and notebooks to transfer massive HD-video files to settop boxes for playback on wirelessly connected HDTVs. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Ducks in a row
"In case you've been living under a rock,"
You may want to re-read the articles and my comments before making silly snipes like this. Transferjet and WirelessHD are both industry standards that happen to involve Sony. As are Bluetooth, Zigbee, Wireless USB, and any number of other industry standards.
And before you bash your capslock key, you may want to spend two minutes actually reading the licensing terms that are quite clearly described on the websites of each of those standards.
OK. Maybe ten minutes. Some of them have words with three or more syllables. Perhaps ask a friend to help.
Sheesh.
@Ducks in a row
When Sony creates a "standard" it most definitely is "boo nay! naughty sony!" In case you've been living under a rock, or with a bunch of Macolytes for the past forever or so, proprietary is bad. Everything about Sony is proprietary.
Now, I am not going "ra ra open source, give everything away for free." I am saying OPEN STANDARDS WITH CHEAP OR FREE LICENSING TO INCORPORATE INTO YOUR PRODUCTS. MP3 was a reasonably priced format. CAT5/CAT6 was an open Standard. DVI/HDMI/D-SUB etc. were all output formats that were either free or reasonably priced for licensing.
Compare this to blu-ray, mini-disc, or any of the dozens of other proprietary or open-but-horribly-expensive-to-license formats and standards Sony has concocted. By the gods, you'd think they were Apple or some such.
The reason for these free/fair-and-cheap standards and formats is that it allows interconnectivity between devices produced by multiple manufacturers, fostering innovation, competition and creativity. Sony abhor everything they can’t control, and have never been known to play nice with anyone. So boo Sony standards? Hell yes. A standard created by a large consortium of businesses, governments, and NGOs, released as free specification, or licensed in a reasonable and fair manner that is conducive to competition is the only path forward. It is for that reason, I’ll never buy anything that says Apple or Sony on the side. Boo and hiss at the both of them. (And a naught “shame shame” to MS and a raft of others for quite a few things too.)
Why not optics?
All this wireless stuff makes me think our family is going to be sat in front of the telly in radiation suits.
Why not just throw optics in everywhere and have done with it? Much smaller, neater and carries an awful lot of data. Wireless isn't any good without some form of control, and while they've achieved the bandwidth, I don't think they've thought through the multiple devices thing.
Why...
"wireless Gigabit Ethernet could some day allow not only high-speed WLAN performance, but also allow PCs and notebooks to transfer massive HD-video files to settop boxes for playback on wirelessly connected HDTVs."
Why would you send your HD video file to a set-top box and then send to TV? Surely you're PC/notebook will have a built in WHD transmitter and will simply transmit directly to the TV?
The people who don't see the point of these cable-less technologies aren't seeing the bigger picture, we are not talking about less cable clutter behind your TV, what about sitting in front of the TV with your laptop and quickly showing your friends a youtube clip on the big screen, presumably not long before the tech makes it onto hand-helds too, you can then stream HD (from iTunes or wherever) straight up on to the screen
Whats to bet
The first bunch available, much like bluetooth are open to FAR to much abuse.
Lets hope my neighbours have a fascination with The Simpsons and adult TV, see if I can pinch their signal and cancel my TV license.
