A Dream Come True? Wireless Technology for HD Among Future Plans
When I was trying to set up my bedroom and living room televisions when I moved back to Cambridge after a summer in Kentucky, I realized the difficulty of an increasing number of boxes surrounding the TV set.
In the living room, I was lucky enough to have an HD cable box that seconds as a DVR, so all I had to add was a DVD player to make that room complete, and the power strip and all the various cords (S-Video cord for the DVD player and an assortment of cords for the HD player, along with the power cords) fit behind the piece of furniture the TV is set on.
It was another story in the bedroom, where my entertainment center holds the television, cable box, a digital hard drive/DVD recorder, VCR, and another DVD player (I'm paranoid about my hard drive dying on me someday), plus the Playstation II. Point is, I had a pretty difficult time stuffing all the cords behind the entertainment center while still trying to push it against the wall.
And everyone knows what it's like to have a cable cord stretching across the floor that you are afraid you are going to trip over or try to hide with all your might. I have a feeling that there are plenty of readers who have been part of this particular scene when moving into an apartment or house sometime in their life.
That's why I was particularly intrigued by James Hibberd's TelevisionWeek piece about the WirelessHD Consortium, the group of six major electronics companies who are brainstorming with a wireless technology start-up about how to get rid of that "tangled mass of wires that lurk behind most HD displays."
Anytime TV junkies here the word "wireless," they get very excited. If I can someday dump the tub of excess wires I have under my bed in case something goes faulty into a recycle bin of some sort, I will be a happier man.
According to Hibberd, the technology would allow a cable box or DVD player to beam a high-def signal up to 32 feet. This would replace all the necessary HD cord hookups that are currently being used.
The technology would not be ready commercially until 2008 however.
According to Eric Bangeman, the plan is for new high-definition equipment to be compatible with the technology, while existing sets can work through adapters.
The WirelessHD Consortium Web site is available here.