What WHDI 1.0 can do for consumer electronics!

Here’s a brilliant technological development that should interest everyone associated with electronics!

WHDI LLC today announced the completion and availability of WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface) specification. Joe Kilmer at WHDI, Santa Clara, shared this information with me. Many thanks Joe!

What does WHDI do? Well, it enables full 1080p/60Hz HD with Deep Color at a distance of 100 feet and through walls. No other wireless standard combines this level of quality and robustness with the ease of multi-room wireless. WHDI thus enables consumers to build a wireless HD network in the home to take advantage of the latest content and interactive services.

A leading standard for wireless, multi-room distribution of HD video, WHDI will enable manufacturers to deliver higher value added devices that can connect the increasing number of HD sources (CE, PC and mobile devices) to TVs around the home.

By purchasing products featuring the WHDI logo, consumers will be able to use devices from different manufacturers that will simply and directly connect to one another and deliver HD content and services without the need for complicated and expensive wiring.

What’s so great about WHDI 1.0?
According to Joe Kilmer, WHDI enables consumers to build a HD wireless network in the home to take advantage of the latest content and interactive services.

The application areas include set-top-boxes, DVD players, Blu-ray, DVRs, game consoles, PCs (desktops, notebooks, netbooks), mobile devices (phones, PMPs, camcorders, etc.) to TV HD and wireless HD connectivity. It means, WHDI can be ported across all sorts of CE devices!

AMIMON and Maxim are said to be manufacturing the RF chips.Now, WHDI enables full 1080p/60Hz HD with Deep Color at a distance of 100 feet and through walls. Here, through walls should be multi-rooms (see image) -– wirelessly connecting a DVR in the living room to a TV in the bedroom -– and wirelessly connecting devices across and throughout the home.

Be aware that non-WHDI devices won’t be compatible with products having WHDI logo at this stage. Is there a way to overcome this?

Of course! It appears that consumers can use WHDI video accessories/dongles to connect and integrate legacy devices into a WHDI network.

So, what’s the technology behind WHDI – especially wireless?

According to Kilmer, Amimon’s video-modem is the basis of the WHDI standard. That said, all the promoters have contributed to the standard. The WHDI Consortium was formed by Amimon, Hitachi, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, LG Electronics.

Just when we all thought that we were future proof with HDMI 1.3, there’s talk brewing about HDMI 1.4. And, do all of these technologies mix in with WHDI? Kilmer added that WHDI is complementary to wired technologies such as DisplayPort, HDMI and DiiVA.

And, how does WHDI compare to DisplayPort and WirelessHD, if at all?

WHDI competes directly with WirelessHD! The key difference being: WirlessHD is in-room only, while WHDI enables whole home HD wireless connectivity.

The roadmap ahead for WHDI involves adding adopters to enable a WHDI ecosystem.

So, what should a company do to be able to acquire the license to the technology, especially, makers of CE devices in Asia, and elsewhere? Simply, companies can join in as WHDI adopters, and license the WHDI specification and trademark.