Want to see WHDI function in a virtual living room? Well, some of our friends put together a demonstration video that can show you just that. Take a look!
Archive home entertainment
WHDI In Action
Category: HD video, HDTV, High-Definition audio, home entertainment, Smart TV, WHDI, Wireless HDMI /
Tags: amimon, Arts, HDMI, home entertainment, SmartTV, Television, Wireless Home Digital Interface, wireless living room
Wireless and the A/V Connectivity Goes To Las Vegas
We are honored to have WHDI represented by our own Leslie Chard at the Projection Summit 2012 in Las Vegas on Monday, June 11 – Tuesday, June 12. Leslie will be giving a talk on “Wireless and the A/V Connectivity” at the Las Vegas Hotel (adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center), in Pavilions 10-11 at 4:30 pm on Monday, Jun 11. We hope to see you there!
Let Go Of The Wires
There seems to be a perception out there that a completely wireless living room is still a “thing of the future.” Well, this could not be further from the truth. A completely wireless living room is possible right now and is probably better than you think it will be.
There is such a thing as the “status quo bias,” which means that people are generally inclined to prefer things as they are and fear change. This bias can lead to assumptions that new advancements are perpetually in a state of unreadiness. We see this often when it comes to the wireless living room. However, we have good news. We are ready! With WHDI technology, the wireless living room is possible and what’s better, it delivers the full promise of wireless technology — not having to think about how your devices are connected. That means not having to worry about weak signals or poor performance or subpar video and audio. No wires to trip over, no signals to adjust, just your devices, in their best quality, mirrored to your TV.
That is here! We can do all of this now. WHDI is not a technology of the future, it is a technology of the present, so get onboard!
Category: AMIMON, HD video, HDTV, High-Definition audio, home entertainment, WHDI, Wireless HDMI /
Tags: amimon, HDMI, home entertainment, Television, wireless, Wireless Home Digital Interface, WirelessHD
Why Custom Installers Need WHDI: Remember Audio?
WHDI is dedicated to meeting the demands of the real A/V consumer. Other similar technologies are not; it’s that simple. Our dedication is one reason we are the market leader and the difference is apparent.
Consumers have been disappointed with the offerings from other technologies lately. The offerings all have holes. One of the main holes is audio. Wi-Fi Display, for example, does not support HBR audio, so if you get a movie from a device via WFD, you will not have the same experience you would get through an WHDI or HDMI enabled source. Why does WFD ask consumers to sacrifice for wireless? The technology needs to be built from a consumer perspective and, like we have said before, audio is very important.
How can you say you care about customer experience and ignore audio? There is something fundamentally out of touch with a lot of the solutions for wireless marketed out there. If audio isn’t being served, then certainly even more advanced issues are not even being addressed. 3D, through walls, the limits keep expanding and if you are stuck at audio, you are falling behind.
The focus in the market now is on the increasing number of content sources and how to get these to the TV. Content sources include direct streaming from the Internet to the Smart TV or other IP device (STB or other display), as well as the rise of other device content sources, such as laptops, tablets and smartphones. These devices are not just for consuming content, they are for delivering it to the TV. Many laptops, phones and tablets have HDMI outputs, and many more smartphones are including MHL outputs that are designed to deliver HD content to the TV. Clearly the interest in mirroring content is there. However, interest in using a wire to do so is clearly not there. It is inconvenient for watching movies and impossible if using your phone or tablet as a game or interactive content controller. The future is in getting all these devices mirrored to the TV wirelessly and WHDI will be there to do just that, always focusing n the demands of the A/V consumer.
Category: High-Definition audio, home entertainment /
Tags: amimon, HDMI, SmartTV, Television, whdi, wireless, wireless audio, Wireless HDMI, Wireless Home Digital Interface, WirelessHD
The Triple Threat
Lost in the (justifiable) fervor of the desire for wireless video mirroring is the other half of what comprises home entertainment: audio. Remember audio? Without it, your HD video content amounts to nothing more than beautiful slideshows. Some wireless video solutions seem to have forgotten about this necessary component of home entertainment, business presentations, etc., which got us thinking, doesn’t audio matter?
Of course it does! WHDI remembers audio, which is why we have made sure WHDI technology supports High-Definition audio, 5.1-channel surround sound, in addition to 2D and 3D video resolutions up to 1080p. Oh, and it can go through walls. And, you know what? That all matters!
WHDI stands alone as the only wireless HD content mirroring technology that offers the full triple threat: audio, 3D video and the freedom to mirror through walls. It is that range of service that sets WHDI above the rest, because it accommodates all needs and does not limit any functionality of your devices when you mirror them. You get full quality audio and video, 2D and 3D, so anything your device can do, your big screen can mirror, with amazing quality. You don’t need a barrage of solutions, tailored to each type of activity you are trying to mirror, or worse you don’t need to stop mirroring to use other functions. Any content you want to use, WHDI technology can mirror. That is why it is the only true triple threat on the market. We mirror everything.
Choices, Choices, Choices
We touched on the increase in entertainment choices available to the consumer earlier in our piece, Bring The Stream Back In, but the story of choice-culture does not end there. For every well-known platform, which is being used to stream digital content that you can name, there are many more, that you have never heard of. And increasingly, people rely on these smaller platforms for their favorite entertainment.
Any advancement in living room technology has to take into account the full breadth of options the Internet makes available. It’s not enough to just offer Hulu or Netflix. Users rely on the entire Internet for entertainment and will go to wherever they can find this flexibility. In a given day (for instance, my day yesterday), a user can stream content from Netflix, Hulu, Funny Or Die, CollegeHumor, YouTube, Vimeo, Tumblr, Facebook, PBS.org, the BBC, CNN and on and on. Notebooks can handle all of that. Tablets and smartphones can to a lesser extent. What’s left? The TV.
Many solutions aimed at bringing Internet content to the TV focus rather narrowly on what they consider to be the user demand. But, as we showed above, the demand is wide-ranging and if there is anything early adapters do not enjoy, it’s being told they cannot have the flexibility to which they have become accustomed. Many people use Smart TV offerings in conjunction with their tablet and notebooks, where they watch what they cannot find on their TV. We think it would be better to put everything in one place, specifically in the place best designed for entertainment, the TV. And by mirroring the full Internet experience from other devices to the TV, WHDI allows users just that flexibility. There are no walls, just mirrors.
Video: 
WHDI multiscreen mirroring
Category: Applications, HD video, HDTV, home entertainment, Tablet, WHDI, Wireless HDMI /
Tags: BBC, CNN, CollegeHumor, Facebook, Hulu, Netflix, streaming, tablet, Tumblr, whdi, wireless mirroring, YouTube
Smart Displays: From Emerging to Mainstream
Today, at 3:20PM in the the Hard Rock Hotel, San Diego, Leslie Chard, President, WHDI LLC will be delivering a talk entitled, “Building A Truly Smart Display.” The talk comes as part of the US FPD Conference.
One of the hottest trends in home A/V is the smart TV. Perhaps the only trend bigger is the increasing amount of HD content that is coming to devices other than the TV, including laptops, tablets and even mobile phones. In this context, what makes a TV “smart”? In this presentation, Les will discuss how a truly smart TV must allow consumers to access any content from any source, whether directly from the internet or from their tablet or mobile phone and through their UI of choice. Les will outline a key requirement for this intelligence: the TV must support a wireless connection that allows both the high-quality streaming of HD content and the no-latency mirroring of the source device. This functionality will be part of the smart TV of the future, giving consumers easy access to all of their HD content, including movies, games and other interactive content, from any of their devices.
Category: HDTV, home entertainment, IPTV, Smart TV, WHDI, Wireless HDMI /
Tags: Consumer electronics, Content (media), San Diego, SmartTV
The Rise Of The “Everywhere” Games
This month, we have been writing about how content becomes mobile and streaming. Those two trends define the modern consumer. However, there is something else content is increasingly becoming … games! Maybe Call of Duty finally making its way to the iPhone and iPad unleashed the gamer inside all of us, because now almost everybody is playing games and it is no surprise that, just like shows on Netflix or on Hulu, games are being streamed to our mobile devices.
And gaming is not just for “gamers” anymore; the casual gamer has become a major force in the market. No longer is gaming reserved for those with big, fancy systems with a ton of horse power; quality games are now available for reasonable prices (sometime even for free) on notebooks, tablets and phones. But what about those of us who enjoy those games, but still want to have a higher quality gaming experience? Once again, enter the TV.
Your fancy entertainment center need not go to waste just because you are addicted to Call of Duty. With WHDI, you can mirror the game to your big screen and destroy zombies in the full screen glory with which they were meant to be destroyed. The games you play everywhere can now be enjoyed in the comfort of your living room. This is just another way that WHDI brings added quality to what consumers are already doing.
Category: Gaming, home entertainment, Tablet, Wireless HDMI /
Tags: angrybirds, Film, Game, Hulu, mirrored gaming, Netflix, Streaming media, Wisconsin Public Radio
Bring The Stream Back In
It’s no secret that it is a good time to be in the streaming media business. We live in a world where “on demand” is the norm and products that are not delivered precisely when consumers request them are struggling. From groceries, to meals, to bills, to reminders, to social interactions and finally to media, everything these days is designed to be available how and when the customer desires. This new reality is reflected in content consumption habits.
People demand personalized content more than ever before because they have the technology that allows them to make such demands. As we described earlier, mobile technology has changed the way people access content, but it has also changed the foundation of what it takes to successfully provide content to users. Now, mobile is important, but so is “on demand,” and the proof of this is how big companies like Netlix, Hulu and Amazon are in the media marketplace.
Despite recent missteps by Netflix, they remain a force in the media world without parallel. They reinvented an industry. They brought streaming to the forefront. Their legacy will remain, regardless of whatever other bonehead decisions they may or may not make in the coming years. Available, streaming content is now what people expect.
Access to “on demand” content has often meant sacrificing devices that were not in the Internet loop, like the TV, or alternatively just keep viewing this great “on demand” content on the ‘lousy’ small mobile screen Sure, some cable providers have offered “on demand” packages, but only for their own limited ‘closed’ content. The variety of their content was nowhere near what was available online. The TV was out of luck. Unfortunately for TVs, the need for “on demand” content is only going to grow. SmartTVs attacked the problem from another direction, but then again provides limited format support, typically using dedicated applications and, most importantly, it doesn’t connect to your new mobile streaming machine. Fortunately, WHDI is coming to the rescue, offering a way to bring these sources of content to the big screen.
Forget about fancy converter boxes or brand-specific hardware, WHDI allows you to mirror all of your streaming sources to the big screen. Neflix, Hulu, Amazon, whatever and from whereever. If you can stream it, you can see it on your big screen. This is already the way people get content, now it’s time to reincorporate that with their favorite place to view content. It’s time to bring the stream back in.
Category: home entertainment, Tablet, WHDI, Wireless HDMI /
Tags: Amazon, Amazon.com, amimon, Hulu, Netflix, Streaming media, Television, whdi
The Mobility That Changed My Life
Mobile devices have changed the way people get their content. They have changed the nature of the content made, the way in which it is transmitted and the way it is available to be viewed. Over the next four weeks, we will be looking into where people get their content, what they expect from their content and how that is effecting consumer behavior. At the end of the month, you can find us at Mobile World Congress, where we can talk about the subject in person!
First, let’s look at the devices that started this revolution in consumer behavior. The iPhone hit the market only a few short years ago, in the summer of 2007, but it did not take long for smartphones of every variety to become a ubiquitous part of modern life. With smartphones came an adjustment in the demands put on data and content. Where before, laptops offered a degree of mobility, smartphones offered virtually unlimited mobility. Then came tablets, which combined the mobility with a more viewer-friendly experience. People got used to getting high quality content, when and where they wanted.
So where is the TV in all of this? It is still there, but out of the loop. TV’s biggest problem is that it can’t move. However, that is also its biggest advantage. It can’t move because it is the biggest, best picture quality in the household; it is still the king of the household’s media. Pulling the TV back into the loop means connecting it to all the content that came out of the rise of the smartphones and tablets. Mobile devices rely on Internet content, and Internet content has become a crucial part of our culture. So, in order to get the TV back into the loop, it needs to be connected to the content that resides in our mobile devices.
Well dear TVs, if you can’t beat them, join them. WHDI allows TVs to connect to the mobile devices people have fallen in love with and come to depend on since the summer of 2007 by mirroring the content in the devices to the TV. TV stays king, mobile stays the means of finding and storing content. TV is back in the loop.
Category: HD video, HDTV, home entertainment, iPhone, Mobile, Mobile World Congress, Smart TV, Tablet, WHDI, Wireless HDMI /
Tags: Content (media), IPhone, Mobile Computing, Mobile device, Mobile World Congress, Smartphone, Television, Wireless HDMI