Wireless Technologies Making Their Way into Households to Enable Multimedia Services

With the rapid and constant advances made in wireless technologies, it is becoming increasingly easy to avoid the use of high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) cables while transferring HD audio/video content within a room. There are a number of technologies available in the market capable of transferring HD content wirelessly inside homes. Examples include wireless HD (WiHD), ultrawideband (UWB), 802.11 variants, and wireless HD interface (WHDI). As a result, the competition in the segment is heating up with a number of companies and standard bodies trying to gain a strong foothold in the consumer electronics market, before it is too late.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan finds that the HD video contents can be delivered by a few wireless technologies such as UWB, WiHD, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 variants, 60 Gigahertz (GHz), and WHDI.

However, mere technological development alone will not suffice to ensure greater adoption of wireless technologies for multimedia services. Industry participants have to deal with several issues relating to cost, consumer awareness, interoperability, security, and power consumption.

Another factor that may throw a spanner in the works is the glut of wireless technologies. Currently, there are more than four standard technologies that can enable wireless multimedia services for homes.

"Examples include UWB, 802.11-based approaches, WiHD, WHDI, and other proprietary approaches developed by startups," notes Frost & Sullivan Technical Insights Research Analyst Yin Fern Ko. "This could confuse consumers and hence, it is important to ensure that challenges such as consumer awareness are addressed in the right manner."

Manufacturers can educate consumers with better marketing brochures and advertisements. Companies and standard bodies need to be quick to keep consumers updated on technology upgrades. When being educated about the benefits and properties of streaming multimedia content onto handheld devices, consumers are likely to be concerned about power consumption.

"Presently, chipsets are being developed for implementation in devices such as televisions, set top boxes, and digital video disc (DVD) players," notes Technical Insights Research Analyst Achyuthanandan S. "However, in a few years, mobile devices would occupy an integral position in the home network and companies that are able to develop power efficient, small-sized chipsets without compromising on performance are likely to dominate."

If consumers are to take to technologies such as WHDI or WiHD in mobile devices, power consumption needs to be reduced drastically. Keeping this requirement in mind, standard bodies and companies have already started working toward reducing power consumption by their technologies.

Once the issue of power is solved, companies in the wireless multimedia home networking space can focus on solving another critical issue - that of cost. There is a huge price gap between devices equipped with wireless technologies and the same device equipped with a wired equivalent. This disparity could hinder the adoption of wireless technologies for home networking. This situation has led to some companies declaring potential price cuts for their products.

"Despite the high prices, the penetration of HD screens for multimedia services is relatively high in the metropolitan cities in North America due to the consumer demands and affordability," observes Yin Fern Ko. "HD multimedia services have slowly made their way into the European market as well, although the uptake has been slow."

Asia, Japan and South Korea are the countries with relatively high uptake of HD televisions (HDTVs). The lack of HD content and HD cable networks in Asia has put a dampener on the uptake of HD multimedia services in this region. However, this state of affairs is soon expected to change, as the majority of Asian countries are increasingly deploying broadband wireless networks, and this will pave way for greater use of wireless technologies for multimedia services.

Posted to the site on 10th December 2008