News and Reviews....

    Digital Living Room Duel  November 2006        

    One of the most promising wireless technologies in the lab has jumped into one of the most mis-understood formats in the consumer's bag of confusion. Yes, the HDMI format which carries both HD Video and standard Audio in one cable is going wireless. Typically the length of a HDMI cable is limited to 15 meters (50 Ft.), and there are products that can extend that range in hard wire. But, streaming video wirelessly at a 60 GHz frequency band with 5 Gbits/second refresh rates is roaring, even if the radios will not penetrate walls and range is limited.. The whole process is being overseen by the WirelessHD group. The group comprised of LG, Matsushita, NEC, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba will deliver a specification this spring for links reaching up to 10 Meters (33 Ft) And so the wireless technology is in great competition with HDMI, 1394 Firewire, 802.11n and other flavors of ultrawideband. The group will need all the brain power it can get for the technology faces challenges ranging from design, simulating and testing the ultra-fast circuits to building highly accurate and adaptive antennas. And it faces scrutiny over security from the studios in Hollywood. The group has said that it intends to carry uncompressed high-definition video at resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 progressive scan, with latencies ranging from 5 to 15 milliseconds.

Comment .....  It is too early to tell. We see the advantage of a self contained system being able to reach the Flat panel within the room and the saving of costs in wiring to and from, but the advantages might only be for specific problematic rooms or retro-fitting an existing room where wiring is not an option. Custom Audio-Video Systems believes that hard wired is always better then radio (wireless) methods. What goes up into the air doesn't always come down in electronic systems. Darn, but it always works in gravity.

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