Digital home at last?
When Sony, Samsung, Motorola, Hitachi and Sharp decide to cooperate on something, it’s definitely worth investigating. Today they announced they had formed a “special interest group to develop a comprehensive new industry standard for multi-room audio, video and control connectivity utilizing Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) technology.”
Now, we’ve all seen various alliances (DLNA) and other collective efforts in the past that aimed to make the long-awaited digital home become a reality, but one thing that makes this latest one stand out is the timescale it’s proposing. This standard is intended to be completed this year.
WHDI technology appears to be the brainchild of an Israeli company called AMIMON. The key component appears to be a video modem that enables wireless delivery of uncompressed HD video through walls, furniture, etc.
The point of the special interest group is to make this a standard for wireless communication between all varieties of consumer electronics (CE) devices.
One member of the AMIMON board is the founder of the HDMI standard, Dr. David Lee. He had this to say: “WHDI technology complements other wireless and wired standards with a new class of connectivity within the home. WHDI’s connectivity matrix introduces to consumers new possibilities to enjoy their high-definition entertainment network.”
So basically this intends to be wireless HDMI. If they pull it off and it’s as simple to use and reliable as they claim and it does get adopted by most CE vendors, then it could be the solution the digital home industry has been waiting for, for years. That’s a lot ifs though.
Read on to see what the WHDI had to say to us.