WHDI - Wireless Home Digital Interface.

[joepic]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/07/22/electronics.signals.ap/index.html


Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., along with Motorola Inc., Sharp Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., will develop an industry standard around technology from Amimon Ltd. of Israel called WHDI, for Wireless Home Digital Interface.

"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,"

Motorola plans to build the technology into its set-top boxes, which are used by many cable providers around the U.S. But the first product will 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, Moroney said.

Belkin International Inc. already sells a pair of adapters based on Amimon's chips for $1,000, and Sony has announced a similar set for its TVs. Moroney said Motorola hopes to sell a kit for significantly less than Belkin's price next year, as the technology matures.

Kurt Scherf, an analyst at Parks Associates, noted that wireless video technologies have been talked up for years, but haven't lived up to their promises so far. Professional audio-video installers surveyed by his firm aren't excited about wireless, because they're afraid of reliability problems.

Still, he said, WHDI's range should give it an edge, since it allows the technology to do more than just replace a cable in the entertainment center.

[edDV]

This was all the buzz last January at CES.
http://www.amimon.com/technology.shtml

[yoda313]

Why would you need something new? They just need to get gigabit wifi speeds. Then high def video would have enough bandwidth to beam from pc to pc (or mac to mac, I know) without hesitations.

Isn't WIFI N getting close enough to do wifi high def streaming now? We just need faster wifi speeds for it to work with existing technologies. Oh and the gaming consoles need to offer the new wifi speeds as well.

[edDV]

Why would you need something new? They just need to get gigabit wifi speeds. Then high def video would have enough bandwidth to beam from pc to pc (or mac to mac, I know) without hesitations.

Isn't WIFI N getting close enough to do wifi high def streaming now? We just need faster wifi speeds for it to work with existing technologies. Oh and the gaming consoles need to offer the new wifi speeds as well.

"N" needs heavy compression. To get higher WiFi speeds you need deep pockets to buy RF spectrum space (contact FCC about bidding for "700MHz" and higher UHF channels) or move up to ultraviolet or laser. The problem with ultraviolet and laser is they don't penetrate walls. It could work for set top box to HDTV in line of sight.

http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=about_auctions
http://www.newser.com/story/27550.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_wireless_access
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiMAX

[yoda313]

@ eddv - thanks didn't know the limitations. I thought it was just going to increase and increase. Interesting bit about the ultraviolet stuff. Didn't know about those.