Two years after assembling a team to fight the tyranny of wires with 60GHz beaming and less than a year after entering mass production, SiBEAM has unveiled its second generation of WirelessHD chips, this time with the promise of low cost, mass adoption price points with an eye towards reducing overall costs and improving video quality. The new 65nm chips don't require active cooling, use less power and take up less space, plus integrate HDMI, HDCP and DTCP support and surround sound capability. Last year the premium was too steep for us to consider wireless HDTV as a serious option, but as costs come down and manufacturer support comes up it may be time to take another look at WirelessHD.

We know, it's easy to be distracted by the sexy, slim BRAVIA LCD HDTV in front of you, but refocus your eyes for a moment on that unassuming box to the lower right. Given a distinct lack of (read: none) media inputs on the screen itself, that little devices is where all your HDMI, coax and other video sources will be going. With it's $5,000 pricetag the ability to hide DVR's, game consoles and whatever else well away from the television itself is a major selling point so feel free to peruse these pictures (no iPhone comparisons, we promise) and get familiar before this set hits shelves in October.

One of our ultimate dream gadgets has long been a dead-simple wireless HDMI dongle for our laptops -- something that would let us just throw a window (say, Hulu) up on our HDTV without a lot of fuss, cables, or configuration. So obviously we were pretty excited to try out the $199 Atlona Technologies HD-AiR, which marries Wireless USB with DisplayLink and promises to send 720p video directly from your laptop to a base station with VGA and HDMI outputs up to 30 feet away -- until we received the box and noted the small print saying that it doesn't support audio. Hopes: dashed.

On top of that, we're not sure if it's DisplayLink, Wireless USB, or some combination of the two, but the video link seemed pretty bandwidth-starved -- full-screen video was close to unwatchable, PowerPoint transitions were kinda jerky, and even just moving windows around was pretty choppy. For such a promising -- and much-needed -- device, the HD-AiR just doesn't get it done. Atlona says the next version will have audio support and 1080p video support using the next generation of DisplayLink chips and drivers, but we'd hope the company's engineers spend a little more time in the lab polishing up their 720p framerates before they push this thing any farther. Video after the break.

We sort of saw the writing on the wall, but now Belkin has went and made it official: the FlyWire is dead. Originally showcased at CES 2008 and at practically every AV-related trade show since, the wireless HD-enabling FlyWire was seen as the poster child for wireless HD / HDMI by many, and the death of this product certainly doesn't bode well for the technology as a whole. It's true that AMIMON -- the wireless startup responsible for the WHDI technology within the FlyWire and a few other devices -- just landed an extra $10 million in VC funding, but still, we've literally been waiting years for this so-called "promising technology" to get a foothold in the market. Or even make a wave, really.

As has become customary these days, Belkin is also pinning the cancellation of the FlyWire on the economy, with a spokesperson telling us that the "retail price of $1,499 would be out of line given the current state of the economy." She continued by stating that the company has "opted to halt production of FlyWire" and "will no longer be introducing [it] to the market." Granted, the company does seem somewhat apologetic, concluding that "there will be some disappointed folks out there, but [Belkin's] end goal is to introduce products that are accessible and that make sense in the current environment."


Frankly, we're not buying it. In April, Belkin affirmed to us that while AMIMON's WDHI technology was "solid," it was taking its sweet time in order to "pay very close attention to the user experience, such as the packaging, setup, and the quick install guide." We could be way off base here, but we'd say the economy was sucking quite a bit harder in April than it is today. And honestly, that's beside the point. A $1,500 device that enabled a Blu-ray player to communicate wirelessly with an HDTV is obviously a luxury item, and regardless of unemployment numbers, Belkin had to know that the FlyWire would only appeal to upscale consumers. You know, the same folks who also put in an order for a Ferrari California in 1H 2009 while their hedge fund dived.

To us, the sudden death of the FlyWire is more of an industry signal than anything. For quite some while, we've been wondering when the industry at large would embrace wireless HD and HDMI technology, and now we're beginning to think that said embrace will never happen in any significant capacity. Even Wireless USB couldn't cut it, and we're guessing there are an awful lot more USB users out there than HDMI. If the price dropped dramatically and the sector consolidated a bit in order to agree on a single standard, we'd say wireless HD / HDMI has a fighting chance. 'Til that happens, you can pretty much bank on the FlyWire fiasco becoming a model for the rest. Belkin's statement in full is past the break.

Panasonic has cleared a path for its WirelessHD equipped HDTV to launch in the UK now that Ofcom has opened up the necessary radio spectrum for use by all manufacturers. As it stood, manufacturers needed to get permission to use any part of the wireless spectrum, but now anyone should be able to use the 57-66GHz range. Expect the 54-inch version of Panasonic's wireless set to run around £5,000 when it becomes available in a few weeks, with other wireless TVs from LG and other coming later in the year.

[Via Stuff]

Hey, look at that -- it's Panasonic's super-hot one-inch thick Z1 wireless HDTV, just cold sitting out for sale in a San Jose Magnolia store. No official availability announcement yet, but we're guessing it's coming soon, right on time for the Z1's planned summer debut. Everyone got their $6,000 ready?

LG's LH-series wireless HDTVs just made their debut in South Korea last month, and it looks like they're on their way to a Stateside launch soon -- there's the 55LH85, sitting pretty in Uncle Sam's FCC workshop. Of course, the real noise with these sets is the ASW1000 Media Box, which has three HDMI jacks, a pair of component inputs, antenna in, and VGA, all of which it can wirelessly send to your set from 10 meters (32.8 feet) away at 60GHz. Sadly, you can't just tuck it away, since it needs line of sight or close to it to work -- it'll bounce the signal off walls, but placing it right next to the TV won't work so great, according to the manual. Still, it's definitely cool tech -- let's hope ol' Sammy gets through with it soon so we can try it ourselves.

We've known for some while that Celeno had a thing for high-def over WiFi, and that favoritism has never been more clear. Today, the outfit is announcing a partnership with Ralink that will hopefully lead to an array of WiFi home networking designs that are optimized for HD video distribution. The first solution will combine the CL1300 and CLR230 802.11n chipsets along with Ralink's RT2880 and RT2850 chips. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if Celeno is announcing any set-top-boxes to contain said solution just yet, but hopefully that's just a few months away. Hey, CEDIA ain't too far off, is it? Full release is after the break.

Gefen's silver coated WHDI towers may have taken a little longer than expected to get here, but for $899 they might do wireless HD streaming differently enough to arouse your interests. Using Amimon's 5 Ghz tech, it can switch from one to one streaming with HDCP for tossing Blu-ray or upconverted DVDs around, or switch over to broadcast mode, supporting up to 5 remote receivers getting the same video stream, albeit without HDCP. Maximum range is 100 feet line-of-sight and it supports resolution up to 1080p30 with Dolby 5.1 surround audio, that enough to get your credit card out? Picture of the back is after the break, specs beyond the read link.

The biggest question about all that wirelessly connected AV equipment coming our way in the near future (other than how much extra will it cost) is how well it will all work together and under what conditions. Agilent says its CTS-1000 automated test system is up to the task of sorting things out for WirelessHD hardware, measuring frequency, power, bandwidth error rate and other stats to make sure equipment makes the 60 GHz grade before its stamped with the WiHD logo. Pictured above is just one piece of the system, the Infinium 90000A Series Oscilloscope, a better look at things can be had for an easy $350,000 - $500,000, depending on setup, available now for early implementers (we assume Panasonic has one) and June 1 for everyone else.

With its 2009 LED-backlit LH90 LCDs already announced, LG has decided its LH80 line should be next up, its first of many -- following Panasonic's lead -- packing a Wireless HD media box to stream any HDMI, USB, or OTA content to the TV. Available in Korea is just this 55-inch model for about 5.1 million South Korean won ($4,008) but you can check out our CES '09 Wireless HD demo for a better look at the box and display while we wait for its LH85 branded U.S. cousin to make an appearance later on this year.

Yes folks, we're back to the drawing board. Again. With a litany of wireless technologies floundering about and struggling to find real traction in the market, a cadre of market powerhouses have joined up to take wireless streaming to the next level -- or so they say, anyway. The newly formed WiGig Alliance aims to use unlicensed 60GHz waves in order to stream just about anything you can think of: HD video, images, phone contacts, instant messages, audio, etc. This "unified" approach differs from most other alternatives, which generally pick one niche (1080p video, for instance) and stick to it. If the more than 15 technology firms have their collective druthers, the WiGig specification will find its way into everything from set-top-boxes to telephones to home stereos, ready and willing to stream to other WiGig-enabled devices at a moment's notice.

The group consists of household names such as Microsoft, LG, Dell, Samsung, Marvell, Nokia, NEC, Intel and Broadcom (just to name a few), and when we spoke to executives about the announcement, they told us that plans were to have the specification available to member organizations in Q4 of this year. The sad part is that this likely means we won't see shipping products with the WiGig logo for another year after that -- if we're lucky. We can't argue that some stability would be nice in this volatile sector; after all, we've been waiting for promising products like Belkin's FlyWire to ship for well over a year. The execs we spoke with couldn't speak on behalf of the partner firms in terms of what WiGig products were looming on the horizon, but as we alluded to earlier, the playing field is wide open. Honestly, we'd love for this to take off and finally give high-bandwidth wireless applications the support it needs to flourish, but as we've seen over the past few years, the road ahead ain't an easy one to walk. The full release is after the break.

Industry watchers In-Stat didn't mention which variant of WiFi based HD streaming it expects to win out, but just based on the install base 802.11n should be the leader. UWB? DOA. WHDI and WirelessHD? Too expensive, too power hungry, too new. WiFi isn't perfect however, requiring codec support on either end to work with HD video but that's not expected to hold back the 25 million TVs with wireless hardware In-Stat sees shipping by 2013, but for the rest of the details you'll need $3,495 for the research report or a time machine.

[Via TG Daily]

AMIMON, the company behind the wireless HD technology (WHDI) in Belkin's FlyWire (among other devices), has just introduced its second-generation chipset. The device, which utilizes video modem technology operating in the 5GHz unlicensed band, consists of the new AMN 2120 transmitter and AMN 2220 receiver, both of which are angling to slip into set-top-boxes, HDTVs and all sorts of other HDMI-enabled devices in short order. AMIMON asserts that this chipset is the first capable of "delivering full uncompressed 1080p/60Hz HD content throughout the entire home," with a range of beyond 100 feet through walls, under one millisecond of latency and support for HDCP 2.0. Best of all, the new kit is available now for manufacturers to snap up, so for the legions of consumers waiting for someone to get wireless HD right, let us say this: "get to snapping." The full release is after the break.

Finally, something wireless high definition related that's not delayed. As promised, Panasonic's Z1 line of Wireless HD packing 1080p plasmas and assorted accessories went on sale this week for the discerning yen spending consumer. It'll be June before these make a U.S. debut, pop on over to Panasonic's Japan site and pore over some machine translated spec sheets in the meantime.