Amimon has been selected by Mitsubishi to offer a High-Definition LCD TV for the Japanese market with an integrated HD wireless link.
The Mitsubishi product will come embedded with Amimon’s wireless technology, capable of delivering uncompressed HD video streams wirelessly. The wireless HDTV is a two-piece system comprised of a slim and thin LCD panel and a separate HDTV receiver unit that connects to the LCD panel wirelessly.
Amimon explains why they use uncompressed wireless:
High-definition video streams have typical data rates of 15- 20 Mbps, using MPEG-2 in terrestrial, cable and satellite broadcasts, with data rates as high as 30 Mbps in high-definition DVDs. The emerging UWB and 802.11n standards, can support raw data rates of up to 480Mbps, could handle several of these wireless streams.The problem with this assumption is that while the video arrives at the home in compressed MPEG-2 form, it is not provided in compressed form at the output of most video devices. The reason is political. Content providers have been blocking compressed output because it is the blueprint of their valuable IP. Whoever gains access to the compressed content can generate perfect replicas of the content providers’ most valuable assets. These replicas can be distributed over the Internet or as pirate DVDs. So DVD players and set-top boxes typically output only uncompressed video using DVI and HDMI – all of which are uncompressed.
Amimon uses the WHDI standard. The Wireless High Definition Interface provides an uncompressed wireless link which supports delivery of equivalent video data rates of up to 3Gbps (including uncompressed 1080p) in a 40MHz channel in the 5GHz unlicensed band. How does it do this? WHDI takes the uncompressed HD video stream and breaks it into elements of importance, only transmitting the important bits. It doesn’t use 802.11n, because the actual transmission rates or “N” are around 200Mbps, still far from 1.5Gbps. The range is less (100 feet), but latency is reduced (under one millisecond).
Three wireless systems for connecting HDTVs are competing for the home, says EE Times. This “battle of technologies” is being fought between three contending systems, 5 GHz, 60 GHz, and ultra wideband (UWB), according to ABI Research. Most established wireless vendors are waiting to see how the market evolves, says the research firm.
- WirelessHD uses the unlicensed 60 GHz band. The bandwidth available at 60 GHz allows data transmissions as fast as 4 Gbits/s. Developed by SiBeam, Intel, LG, Matsushita Electric, NEC Corporation, Samsung, LTD, SiBEAM, Sony and Toshiba are supporters. WirelessHD delivers up to 4 Gbits/second at distances up to 10 meters. Separately, the IEEE 802.15.3c group is defining a basic physical layer standard for 60 GHz radios.
- Wireless High Definition Interface (WHDI), using 5 GHz. WHDI, developed by Israeli company Amimon, reportedly achieves a data rate as fast as 3 Gbits/s. WiFi 802.11n technology using MIMO can achieve up to 600 mbps, but cannot yield a 3-Gbit/s data rate. For that, Amimon tapped an existing signal-processing technology called joint-source channel coding.
- Sigma Designs and Fujitsu Microelectronics America are collaborating on a UWB variant called Wireless HDAV to carry high def video. Sigma supplies a video processor and WiMedia complaint UWB chip set, and Fujitsu provides an H.264 video codec chip. It’s the first technology solution to support both the H.264 format and UWB based on the WiMedia standard. WiMedia Alliance uses Ultrawideband (UWB) in a band of frequencies from 4.2 to 4.8 GHz or higher. Their Wireless USB standard claims a data rate of 480 Mbits/s and works by compressing and expanding HD video images.
There is no consensus among consumer manufacturers on a single standard or unified wireless HD format. But wireless connections are expected to simplify A/V installations and allow more flexibility in positioning TVs.
