MIMO for TV
Wireless in living rooms is nothing new, but
bringing it to the set top boxes (STBs) that power a lot of the programming you
receive is only just begun. Because it takes a lot of throughput power to
deliver digital video, voice and music, Airgo Networks thinks its 3rd Generation
chipset is just the ticket.
Wireless in living rooms is nothing new, but bringing it to the set top boxes (STBs) that power a lot of the programming you receive is only just begun. Because it takes a lot of throughput power to deliver digital video, voice and music, Airgo Networks thinks its 3rd Generation chipset is just the ticket. So it has announced a multimedia-targeted version of its silicon, called MIMO Media, for just that purpose.
Right out of the gate Airgo has partners to announce, the big one being STMicroelectronics. It holds, according to Beck, anywhere from 65 to 75 percent of the STB chipset market. “When a reference design comes from STMicro, everyone in the world develops on it. We provide the ability to plug this wireless technology in and go.”
The first actual STB with the MIMO Media chips will be the V2O Wireless Home Media Network from original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Caton Overseas of China. The company also which uses STMicro’s chips for MPEG decoding. There will be a couple of devices in V2O, including a central server and client STBs for other rooms in the house for receiving. The first version will support satellite TV; future products will be for cable and IPTV. Beck says they may also integrate the chips items like LCD TVs.
This MIMO Media tech can go beyond STBs and into any kind of home gateway like a DSL or cable modem, says Beck. Anyone who wants to provide wireless video and voice services. Infonetics projects STB unit growth to go up 50% in the next three years as Voice over IP and IP-based TV continue to grow.
The biggest problem with being an Early Adopter is waiting for all the pieces of the puzzle to catch up with each other. Wireless tech with enough horsepower to haul a lot of Standard Def video through the air can be problematic.
These dudes appear to be moving up on the next stage — moving Hi Def throughout the house without wires. They say they can do 240mbps!
Posted: Wed - May 31, 2006 at 08:51 AM