There’s been a lot of talk since the housing bubble burst a few years ago about the need to embrace retrofit technologies in the CEDIA industry.
WHDI is one wireless HD technology that promises low latency in multiple rooms of the home.
In equal measure, there’s been an apparent reluctance on the part of many ESCs in the channel to accept either “no new long wires” products or wireless solutions in any significant way. Personally, I’m already a big fan of Powerline-based products from the likes of Russound and NuVo, and I’m starting to warm to the idea of wireless HD video options as well. In fact, I’m really excited about the prospect of streaming my MLB.TV live baseball games from my laptop to my big screen one of these days.
Next week (August 17, from 2-3 p.m. EST), CEDIA and Residential Systems will present a webinar led by Les Chard, president of a standards group, called WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface, whose promoters and contributors include many of the top names in video display and set-top box manufacturing. If what Chard told me comes to fruition later this year (in the form of new products from major manufacturers), it’ll be hard to deny the convenience of wireless HD technologies in certain applications within the home.
I chatted last week with Chard about his upcoming wireless HD webinar, and he mentioned that with the number of HD source devices dramatically increasing to include not only traditional sources like Blu-ray players and set-top boxes, but also PCs and portable devices such as netbooks, tablets, and smart phones, it’s become more difficult for consumers to connect everything to the HDTV with HDMI cables.
Chard made a strong case for WHDI’s ability to fully enable all wireless video applications, delivering the highest quality HD connectivity for every device type, whether CE, PC, or mobile, in the same room or in multiple rooms. He noted that no other wireless solution combines multi-room connectivity with no-latency full HD quality.
I think it’s time to give retrofit products a more serious look. Why not start by hearing how wireless HD video technology can supplement your project designs in the near future?
