HD Networks Take Center Stage

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Experts in digital home technologies are meeting this week at the Connections Digital Living Conference, hosted by Parks Associates and the Consumer Electronics Association. One of the important topics up for discussion is how to build high-definition networks in homes.

"The networking of multimedia devices throughout the home represents a common objective of content and service providers, CE companies and technology solutions providers," said Bruce Watkins, president and chief operating officer of PulseLink, based in Carlsbad, Calif. "While the technologies evolving to serve this objective are a commonly discussed topic, if deployment of these technologies confuses the consumer they will meet with questionable success -- which is bad for everyone."

PulseLink makes computer chips that transmit high-bandwidth, high-definition content wirelessly and over coaxial cable.

Watkins and others plan to discuss the challenge of building simple, consumer-friendly high-definition home networks at a special conference session. The session will focus on solutions proposed by the High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance (HANA). HANA companies define an open standard for HD networking based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' 1394 FireWire technology.

HANA isn't the only industry group backing an HD networking scheme. The Digital Living Network Alliance is pushing an open standard based on the Gigabit Ethernet protocol. For its part, PulseLink is a member of both groups.

At the Connections Showcase, PulseLink showed off its CWave Ultra Wideband chipset, running over coax and wireless links. In its demo, PulseLink showed multi-room connectivity transmitting high-quality 1080p HD content over hundreds of feet of standard RG59 coax to replicate a typical home set-up. The demo linked HDTVs, Blu-ray Players, DVRs, Media Center PCs, and multimedia storage devices using both 1394 and Ethernet protocols simultaneously over both coax and wireless networks.

The CWave chipset is capable of a 1.3Gbps raw data rate. But as Watkins explained to DIGITAL HOME, with error correction factored in, the actual data rate is more like 1Gbps. Taking into account overhead and the challenge of transmitting content over coax throughout an entire home -- particularly over multiple splitter--and Watkins said integrators could expect 400Mbps over the whole home. That's more than enough to move the compressed HD video that service providers broadcast

Watkins said PulseLink has produced its first batch of chips and is in the process of testing. The company hopes to fill production orders by September. PulseLink is currently concentrating its efforts on getting its chips into the set top boxes that service providers use in homes, Watkins told DIGITAL HOME. It also demonstrated an add-on adapter. Long-term, PulseLink chips chould be built directly into HDTVs.