Israeli chip maker Amimon has raised $10 million in a third round of funding for its business of chips for high-definition video wireless networking.
In May, the company announced its second-generation chip set for their Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI), which can transfer 1080p HD video using a 40MHz channel in the 5GHz unlicensed band.
The company claims it can transmit HDTV about 100 feet at an effective 3 gigabits per second using a novel “compression” scheme. WHDI takes uncompressed HD video and breaks it into elements of importance. The various elements are then mapped onto the wireless channel in a way that give elements with more visual importance a greater share of the channel resources, i.e. they are transmitted in a more robust manner.
Supporters include Sony, Sharp, Mitsubishi, Gefen, Belkin, and others. Products are expected to ship in 2010.
The WiGig Alliance plans to use unlicensed 60-gigahertz to transfer HD video at 6 Gbps. All products based on the WGA specification will be capable of at least 1 Gbps at a typical range of 10 meters, and some implementations will be capable of speeds more than 6 Gbps at greater distances. It’s similar to existing technology promoted by chipmaker SiBEAM, called WirelessHD.
WiGig may enhance the spec by combining it with traditional Wi-Fi networking for extending the range at slower speeds, say industry observers. With WiFi, it may go through walls and cover the entire home, explains Venture Beat.
Quantenna uses the Wi-Fi protocol 802.11n in the 5 GHz band and multiple antennas to transfer video. Quantenna combines 4×4 MIMO, transmit beamforming, vector mesh routing, and two or four concurrent bands for link rates up to 1 Gbps. Quantenna says compliance with Wi-Fi multimedia (WMM) 802.11e QoS standards allows for reliable handling of multimedia transmissions between various third-party Wi-Fi devices.
Perhaps it’s wishful thinking to imagine the top 4 HDTV brands (Sony, Samsung, LG and Phillips) will agree on a single wireless HD standard to link to their Blueray disks.
