Standards push to aid untapped wireless video space

The holy grail of in-home video may be something that consumers don’t even know they want yet. According to one analyst, this still unrealized market is wireless video communications, the ability to wirelessly transmit video among devices in the home. And this week’s announced consortium aimed at helping to standardize one wireless video technology is a step in the right direction, said Steve Wilson, principal analyst of consumer video technologies at ABI Research, as it adds options for those looking to tackle the space.

Chipmaker Amimon’s unlikely alliance with Sony and Samsung to support its Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) technology will ultimately move the industry forward, Wilson said, even if it puts the consumer electronics giants at odds with another technology they support, WirelessHD.

“Interestingly, both of these companies have veterans from the HDMI [high-definition multimedia interface] industry,” Wilson said. “Both companies understand what it takes to put an industry standard in place and are modeling theirs after the HDMI group. They have two technologies vying for similar spaces in the home, and this is for an application that doesn’t really exist yet. People are enamored with wireless technologies, and the ability to send video data from your DVD player or set-top box to the TV is the holy grail of wireless video communication.”

Samsung and Sony joined Hitachi, Motorola and Sharp as members of the WHDI special interest group with the purpose of developing a new industry standard for multi-room audio, video and control connectivity, as well as to develop new products based on Amimon’s 5-GHz wireless technology. Until this week’s announcement, WirelessHD, based on SiBeam’s 60 GHz technology, was the only consortium addressing the market. Yet thus far they have had no actual products to speak of. Amimon has been shipping its 5GHz-based video modem technology to several customers for the past eight months. Sharp began shipping Amimon-based wireless HDTV in Japan earlier this year, and Motorola got on board in 2007.

Amimon’s WHDI technology is based on its own protocols and the same spectrum as 802.11a. According to the company, it can use two 20-MHz channels to transmit 1080p video wirelessly 100 feet, including through walls. Since the technology is essentially filling a need that consumers aren’t really yet expressing, this is a significant validation of a market attracting more skepticism than traction to date, Wilson said.

“It’s based on an approach that is brand new,” Wilson said. “It is not something that was well understood by many people, so it takes time for different companies to validate it. Companies like Sony and Samsung want to see execution before they sign on to something, especially since they are in another consortium already. It takes time for these new technologies to become understood and realized in real products.”