[opendtv] Coming (not too) soon: wireless set-top boxes
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:52:47 -0400
Coming (not too) soon: wireless set-top boxes
Cox exec says plans afoot to embrace multiple networks
Rick Merritt
(06/26/2008 8:25 PM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208801237
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Wireless is coming to the cable TV set-top box.
But just which wireless and when is still not clear.
In the past, cable TV companies--and their set-top box partners--have
generally said they did not want to support wireless directly because it
is not secure and robust enough to carry their premium content. In their
view, video rides coax and wireless is only for a secondary data
network.
But that appears to be changing, according to one cable executive.
"Our signal will still come into the home via coax, but if you want
video out on the patio or into the garage we will be able to provide a
wireless link," said Vince Groff, executive director of strategy and
corporate development for Cox Communications (Atlanta, Georgia).
Cox is developing a digital home architecture to drive its future
offerings. It could be defined by early next year and will likely
embrace multiple home network technologies, probably including
Multimedia over Coax and some form of WiFi.
"I don't think there will be any one technology that wins" in home
networking, said Groff, speaking in a break after a panel discussion on
wireless home networks at the Connections conference.
Don't expect wireless in set-tops coming out in the next 12 months. But
the new architecture Cox is defining now may drive wireless into
set-tops perhaps two years out, he added.
Wireless is already making its way into TVs. Kelly Davis-Felner, a
marketing director for the Wi-Fi Alliance said on the Connections panel
that multiple top-tier consumer companies are shipping TVs with WiFi.
Westinghouse will ship an HDTV within 90 days using ultrawideband chips
from Pulse~Link that now support HDMI and the HDCP copy protection
technology, added Bruce Watkins, president of Pulse~Link, also speaking
on the panel.
Another panel member, John LeMoncheck, president of startup SiBeam, said
Panasonic will ship a TV using his company's 60 GHz technology in time
to watch the next Super Bowl.
Groff of Cox said he doesn't believe cable providers will need the
support for uncompressed video SiBeam promises with its technology that
will deliver up to 4 Gbits/second. He expects WiFi will have a play in
video delivery in the digital home.
Loir Weiss, vice president of marketing for startup Celano, said his
company's modified 802.11 chip will be able to deliver as many as four
HD video streams up to 120 feet even passing through multiple walls. It
is a modified baseband for access points that can work with any WiFi
client and should be certified by the WiFi Alliance soon, he added.
"I want to support as many as five HD streams, plus one or more SD
streams and VoIP," said Groff. "So we are looking at needing 400-500
Mbits/s with quality of service," he added.
It's too early to tell which wireless technologies will come out ahead
in the race to deliver high quality video within a room. "There isn't
one major OEM that is not evaluating all our technologies," said
Watkins, indicating panel members with UWB, WiFi and 60 GHz approaches.
"When I wrote the business plan for Pulse~Link in 2002, no one in this
room was using WiFi," Watkins added. "At the time all the big companies
were talking about HomeRF in the US and HiperLAN in Europe," he said
referring to two approaches than have since faded into history.
What is clear is that more and more players want high quality wireless
connections between LCD TV displays and surrounding components such as
tuners and Blu-Ray drives. "The two-box TV set is coming back in fashion
so you can hang a 25 kilogram screen on the wall," said LeMoncheck.
He was skeptical, however, about Web-enabled TVs. "Data and Internet are
for high end models to get people to pay more for features they never
turn on," he said.
In the panel, Sigma Designs described its CoAir chip, unveiled Tuesday
(June 24) that uses the WiMedia Alliance's version of UWB for wireless
as well as UWB over coax and Ethernet. John Santhoff, co-founder of
Pulse~Link said he evaluated but rejected the WiMedia standard because
its use of OFDM modulation is not ideal for UWB.
WiFi and 60 GHz radios also have their weaknesses, Santhoff added. WiFi
is inherently a collision-based technology, ruling out the possibility
of bandwidth reservation for guaranteed quality of service. The 60 GHz
radios will be expensive, he added, because they require as many as 36
antenna elements and their associated signal chain elements.
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