UWB and Recent Wireless LCD TV Product Announcements
On June 21st, Freescale Semiconductor and Haier, the large Chinese consumer manufacturer, announced that Haier had plans to launch a new product late this year using Freescale’s low speed UWB chipset. The product is a media server linked to a large LCD TV using the wireless USB link. Because Alereon is a leader in the development of UWB chipsets, I am often asked about the wireless video marketplace and how UWB fits into this emerging market. Here are some of my thoughts on how wireless video fits into a future world of “Life Without Wires(tm)”.
The market driver behind the desire for wireless video is the elimination of an otherwise long and unsightly video cable laying on the floor between your DVD player of set top box and your beautiful new 54″ flat screen TV. What has primarily made UWB attractive for use in this wireless video applications is UWB’s speed. In particular, most wireless video applications need to transmit two HDTV streams at 24 to 30Mbps. With speeds of over 100Mbps at 35 ft and 480Mbps at 12 ft, UWB meets the technical requirements for wireless video within one room. However, although UWB does a good job for video distribution in one room and will find its way into some of these applications, UWB is not as useful for longer distance whole house video distribution. The new emerging 100Mbps extension of WiFi (called by its geek name 802.11-N) however is well suited to this application due to its long distance. In addition to high speed WiFi being a good alternative for whole house wireless video distribution, new 100Mbps power line networking technology is now becoming available. Because DVD players and set top boxes are always plugged in to wall power outlets, as are the LCD TVs they want to connect to, many manufactureres may also choose to use power line communications to replace video cables.
The summary here is that consumers should expect to see the replacement of video cables by at least three technologies: UWB, high speed WiFi and powerline communications. Interesting, all HDTVs in the future will incorporate Wireless USB, using UWB techology, even if the video cable is replaced by WiFi or powerline communications. The reason? Connectivity to portable devices. As Wireless USB becomes prevalent in portable devices and prevalent in PCs and PC peripheral devices, consumers will want to connect their portable devices to their TV. Consumers will want to show pictures directly from their digital cameras to their largest and most beautiful display in their home - their LCD TV. Wouldn’t it be spectacular to see your perfect photo of the Tyn Cathedral in Old Town Square in Prague up on your 60″ TV? What about watching the video from your daughter’s soccer match you have on your camcorder? What about looking at the photos from your cell phone you took at the park during lunch? Wireless USB’s ubiquity and low cost result in it being driven into TVs, DVD recorders and a wide range of consumer products. Just not immediately.
In conclusion, the desire to eliminate the need for a video cable connecting a DVD player to a flat screen HDTV is a real one - be it within a room or across the house. In the early market, UWB will serve only a portion of this market. Instead, high speed WiFi and powerline communications are likely to also be used extensively in this application. However, due to the the forthcoming ubiquity of Wireless USB, HDTVs will incorporate Wireless USB in order to connect to the plethora of portable consumer products.
