Panasonic and SiBEAM partner for wireless HDTV

Panasonic, which is part of Matsushita Electric Industrial, announced a partnership with SiBEAM at the CES 2008 event in Las Vegas. The companies plan to develop a wireless HDTV system, based on the WirelessHD 1.0 standard which became official on 3 January 2008.

WirelessHD is a specification for wireless high-definition signal transmission for consumer electronics products developed by a consortium of industry leaders, including Panasonic and SiBEAM, together with Intel, LG Electronics, NEC, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba.

Panasonic and SiBEAM are developing a WirelessHD system comprising a plasma TV with a receiver and a movable rack housing video sources, with a transmitter such as a Blu-ray Disc player and HD digital camcorder.

The system uses SiBEAM’s 60-GHz millimeter-wave technology, which provides 4 Gbits per channel. There are four channels, two of which are available globally. It allows consumers to send high-definition video to a television from a video player or gaming console without cables.

SiBEAM’s OmniLink60 chipset comprises a SB9120 network processor and a SB9110 RF transceiver chipset, which will be integrated by Panasonic.

The line-of-sight, wave technology, establishes a direct connection between the transceiver and the receiver, and searches briefly for another path if the connection is interrupted, offering a seamless connection

Story link: Panasonic and SiBEAM partner for wireless HDTV