Exploring the WirelessHD Consortium

Another exciting change that was revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show was the development of the WirelessHD Consortium (WiHD). Formed by a group of major electronics companies, including NEC, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sibeam, Toshiba, Sony, and Intel, the main purpose of the Consortium is to look at replacing HDMI with what should be a better option.

According to the consortium, WirelessHD is capable of delivering uncompressed, full HD content without loss while still keeping the content copy protected. In addition, WiHD is capable of transmitting data at 4Gbit/s at 33 feet. With this rate, it is capable of sustaining a full 1080p signal as well as several signals set at lower resolutions. WiHD is also capable of supporting DTS HD Master Audio as well as Dolby TrueHD, which means it could quite possibly replace HDMI at some point.

The consortium plans to have the program for moving forward with WiHD completed sometime around June or July, which means products containing the WiHD logo should be available by Christmastime of this year.