Ofcom clears decks for WirelessHD
Wi-Fi Friday imminent
UK regulator Ofcom is removing the licence restrictions on intra-home video links knocking 66GHz, as well as allowing the use of automated level measuring and precise positioning though radio technologies.
The decisions come into force on Friday (17 July) following an earlier consultation which produced only three responses. They bring the UK into line with Europe on very short range devices such as the high-frequency video links espoused by the WirelessHD Consortium, as well as equipment for monitoring the level of liquid in tanks and movement in buildings and structures.
For linking video around the home, to a range of about 10 metres, 57-66GHz has been declared licence-free - which, being 9GHz wide, compares well to the allocation in Japan and the USA (7GHz each, but in slightly different bands). At that frequency wall penetration is going to be out for everything but the flimsiest structures, so think set-top-box-to-TV-screen rather than anything more interesting.
The power of video sending is the only thing that excited any significant responses: two of the three responses just shrugged that the proposals were rather good (one from Intel, the other strangely anonymous). The third, from Huber + Suhner, suggests that separate power levels for indoors and outdoors are unenforceable and should be reconsidered, but Ofcom reworded the regulations instead.
Tank Level Probing Radar will be allowed in quite a few bands, and at reasonable power, but only if installed within a metallic or reinforced concrete tank: which should reduce local interference. We can only hope they work better than the wirelessly-connected sonar-based level indicators for domestic oil, quickly replaced with a long stick in our experience.
Radiodetermination will be allowed across the Wi-Fi bands (around 2.4GHz) as well as up at 17GHz, the technology is used to measure movement in buildings and structures, for tracking or safety applications.
The statement (PDF) also covers some exemptions for in-flight wireless use, including video distribution in the Wi-Fi spectrum; though the power levels being permitted make interference from there unlikely, and the removal of licence restrictions is (almost) always to be applauded. ®
COMMENTS
@"Pointless" commenters
How about if you have a wall-mounted flatpanel TV and don't have space underneath it for a set-top box?
This way you could have the set-top box mounted, say, under the sofa (which would be rather practical with some DVD players- you'd not have to walk across the room to change DVD). Now with a single set-top box this may not seem like much, but if you had a sleek wall mounted TV and had to then find space for an XBox 360, PS2, HTPC, Wii, SKYHD box and whatever comes along in the future... well, you'd probably appreciate having these things tucked neatly away under a coffee table or whatever rather than piled up at the bottom of the wall. And the huge bundle of cables could be condensed down to a single wireless link and a multi-input switcher.
Plus, as it's broadcast radio, you could have a wireless digital link to your speakers rather than running cables/fibres (which can look really messy).
Alternatively it could probably pass through a thin wall with a receiver and transmitter blutacked to the wall itself (i.e. with bugger all distance between them) and this could be preferable to drilling holes in walls in rented accommodation.
And there are probably 1001 other uses no-one's even thought of yet.
Ooooh Nooo;s....
is my tinfoil still gonna work ?????
if not then im breakin out the old Microwave oven and stripping out the Klystron and drivers, remounting them in thier own sheilded box and will start nuking the neighbours tv's, dect phones, and AP's.... at whim
nuke me and ill nuke u back.....
or.....
Set top box to TV?
You could just use a cable...or would you rather sit in a room flooded by microwave radiation.
And for the pedants among us - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave#Frequency_range
Not an expert but...
HDMI leads have been reported to work upto 15 metres without trouble. I can't see the point of introducing a waveguide when you can easily carry the video information at baseband.
The motto when I worked for a (now defunct) Wireless Broadband equipment manufacturer was: Copper is good. You know where you are with copper
Expert advice needed please
"..At that frequency wall penetration is going to be out for everything but the flimsiest structures, so think set-top-box-to-TV-screen rather than anything more interesting."
66GHz has a wavelength of about 5mm so I assume that any use of readily available co-ax cable is out. Could you use a length of copper pipe with a small directional collector horn at each end if you wanted to go from living room to bedroom, etc? A three foot length of copper pipe would be enough for the journey from corner of living room ceiling to a bedroom corner TV table, for example.
