Flat-screen TVs will soon go wireless and be available to consumers in the coming year, according to a consortium of electronics leaders such as Sony and Toshiba. WirelessHD has also announced the specs for the first wireless high-def video transmission.
Digital Journal — Home theatre enthusiasts are in love with all things high definition, from next-gen DVD players to wall-mounted HDTVs. But as cool as the screen’s aesthetic is, the tangle of wires snaking down from a TV can ruin the clean and neat look, and people spend a lot of money hiding the mess. Coming to the rescue are various electronics companies who want to sell wireless HDTVs to the public, starting with a sneak peek at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Monday.
The biggest player in this field is WirelessHD, a group comprised of electronics leaders such as Sony, Toshiba and Samsung. The group recently announced the specifications for the transmission of wireless high-definition video, which will help companies develop their wireless HD products. According to a press release, WiHD is a “wireless high definition digital interface standard operating in the unlicensed and globally available 60 GHz frequency band and represents the first consumer application of 60 GHz technology.”
John Marshall, chairman of WirelessHD, is confident the specs development will overhaul the entire high-def market: “This important industry initiative will change the way manufacturers develop and market devices, as well as reshape how consumers interface with these products.”
WirelessHD is proposing to create small chips that can be inserted into devices to let them receive HD signals. The technology doesn’t interfere with any other wireless networking gear, and also boasts high data transfer rates. WirelessHD won’t compress the signal either.
Manufacturers are promising that the technology will be available to consumers by December 2008. LCD maker Westinghouse Digital Electronics teamed up with Pulse~LINK, Inc., today announcing what they say is the world’s first fully integrated wireless HDTV. It will be on display for the first time at CES.
Streaming HD video wirelessly has been a pipe dream for years, but the support WirelessHD is enjoying and its specs development could give the movement some muscle in the New Year. And once the early adopters see the technology at CES next week, it will be hard to ignore the impressive potential — after all, bringing HD video to a wireless TV is the next step in the evolution of high-def innovation. It’s never too soon to be the first.
