HDTV, and three-dimensional content sometime in the future, is demanding that the mess of wires in the living room be put aside and that there is higher bandwidth for wireless signal transmission.

Standards that could meet these requirements are taking shape; IEEE standards 802.15.3c and 802.11ad are both defining technologies using 60-GHz spectrum for wireless networks operating at up to 5-Gbit per second.

At the IFA 2009 in Berlin, startup SiBeam Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) was due to show what it calls ÔWireless HDMI' that connects data-hungry devices such as Blu-Ray disk player, HD set-top box, HD video cameras and the like.

There is a back channel that provides a bandwidth of 50-Mbit/s, more than existing Wi-Fi solutions. For this reasons, potential applications beyond wireless HDMI would be for USB 3.0 wireless replacement or virtual docking stations for laptops.

Real mass products can be expected soon, said SiBeam president John LeMoncheck, with Panasonic and LG already in the starting blocks. Market potential is estimated at 300 million units for wireless HDMI applications alone.

Also the 5-Gbit/s transfer rate currently promoted is not the end of the matter. "We could go up to 25-Gbit per second," said LeMoncheck. "We are just at the beginning."

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