Interview with Pejman Hafezi, Engineer of the Philips Wireless HDTV Link
I recently had the chance to interview Pejman Hafezi, one of the engineers at Philips, about their new Wireless HDTV Link--a device that allows you to wirelessly transmit full 1080p HD video to your HDTV. Although there's been a lot of talk about wireless HDMI, Philips has been one of the first to hit the market with a fully functional device that allows you to move your home theater equipment out of the living room in order to get a clean, less cluttered home theater. Today Hafezi talks to End User about some of the challenges and benefits of transmitting a true HD signal without wires.
End User: A lot of companies have been trying to
crack the nut of wireless HDMI, and a lot of companies have failed. What makes wireless hi-def so difficult?
Pejman Hafezi: In one word: quality. To deliver quality
wireless hi-def video three main challenges have to be met: picture quality,
link robustness and cable like control behaviour. Many technologies that have
tried to achieve wireless high-definition video streaming have approached it
from one angle only. The technology deployed in Philips’ wireless HDTV Link takes
the approach from a dedicated wireless video modem perspective. It combines
picture quality and wireless robustness at the core of its design.
EU: What is “Ultra Wideband”? How does it compare to the capabilities of a
conventional 802.11x signal?
PH: Philips’s
SWW1800 wireless HDTV Link is not based on either of these technologies. It is
based on a proprietary radio technology operating at 5GHz. The only common
factor with the 802.11a/n systems is that it uses the same frequency band and
radio channelization. The difference is that it uses a dedicated video modem.
This has the advantage that quality of service can be achieved for the
supported distance. In this respect the quality of service is what sets this
approach apart from the existing video streaming solutions offered over the
802.11a/b/g/n radios (which are data modems by design) and the range and
robustness is significantly superior to that which can be achieved using
available ultra wideband based solutions.
EU: What are the benefits of wireless HDMI to
the consumer? Will the products need to
be in the same room, or can you hide all your gear in the basement?
PH: In short, freedom of placement and ease of
use.
We know that the trend in TVs is moving
towards thinner and lighter with larger screen sizes. This makes the option of
hanging the TV on the wall both attractive and a real possibility for many
users. However cable clutter will still be a major obstacle in doing so without
having to go through significant cost and effort to hide those cables
connecting the TV to all sorts of source devices. Philips’ wireless HDTV Link
allows the user to do just that: to offer the user freedom of placement of the
TV and the source devices anywhere in the living room. At present there are no
guarantees that the signal coverage can be extended to a different room or
floor. However within the same room there are no requirements for the
transmitter and the receiver to be within the line of sight of each other. The
receiver can be completely hidden behind the TV and the transmitter unit can be
placed in a non-metallic cupboard.
Another significant advantage of the
SWW1800 wireless HDTV Link is that it’s really simple to experience. It is
ready to use out of the box without any complex installation procedures to be
followed. More notably, it is fully compliant with the HDMI-CEC specification.
This is where simplicity is truly experienced by the user: CEC (consumer
electronic control) is a feature that allows HDMI devices connected to the TV to
be controlled by a TV's remote and using its user interface (one touch play,
one touch standby of the whole system, switching between HDMI devices are
examples of this simplified control behaviour without the need for multiple
remotes). Of course, the HDMI source devices and the TV need to support the
HDMI-CEC feature for this to work (just like the wired equivalent). HDMI-CEC is
supported by all major CE brands under various marketing names such as Bravia
link, Easy Link, Anynet, etc.
Philips’ SWW1800 wireless HDTV Link is one
of the first products of its kind that supports HDMI-CEC features.
EU: I’ve tried a number of wireless solutions
for music, and some were better than others but most all of them had
problems—the signal would intermittently drop, it would randomly unmount remote
drives, etc. What keeps that from
happening in this product, especially since there’s so much more information in
the signal?
PH: Most commercially available wireless
solutions for the applications you mentioned currently operate around the 2.4GHz
frequency band and as there are not many non-overlapping frequency channels
available at 2.4GHz for these devices to operate. This frequency band has
become very congested. Philips’ wireless HDMI switch operates at 5GHz band
which is much less polluted and also has many more non-overlapping frequency
channels available for various devices to operate in without interfering with
each other. The system also employs an intelligent frequency selection
mechanism that ensures selection of the best frequency channel at any time.
Also,
practically all wireless systems experience fluctuations in the
bandwidth available to them depending on the environment in which they operate
and the quality of the radios communicating (like the quality of AP and the
client solution used in case of WiFi operation). The SWW1800 wireless link has
a stand-alone transmitter and receiver architecture and also is designed with
such variations in the wireless medium already taken into account. This enables
the wireless video modem to be responsive to these changes and avoid
interruptions to the video streaming within the supported distance.
EU: What’s the potential for signal
interference? What can disrupt the
signal? Is there a best way to position
your equipment to optimize the wireless connection?
PH: Any wireless device is potentially subject
to interference. There are no exceptions to this. However, the SWW1800 has a
number of advantages in this respect. By operating at the 5GHz frequency and
using the same channel bandwidth as those used in WiFi devices it is ensured
that a large number of radio channels are available for the operation of the
wireless switch. Furthermore, by deploying an automatic frequency selection
technique, the device is capable of monitoring other devices activities in each
of the available channels and selecting the cleanest channel to establish the
link. Even during active operation, the device is capable of regularly
monitoring the channel and if there are interfering devices detected, it will
switch seamlessly to a “quieter channel”. All this is done in real time and
without any visible effects to the user.
The Philips Wireless HDTV Link has an MSRP of $799.99 and is available now.
--Aric A.
Nasir Gul on December 07, 2009 at 05:12 AM
Thanks for sharing valuable interview :) I am not big fan of Philips but when I went to buy some product and see brand Philips, I trust on it with close eyes...
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John on January 11, 2010 at 11:32 AM
nice havent heard about wireless HDMI,and its cool phillips keep on launching new product with new ideas..Well done phillips...Thanks for posting interview....
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