Punters gagging for wireless versions of consumer electronics

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 21 Jun 2004 at 13:48

Consumers are gagging for wireless versions of DVD players, plasma screens and other consumer electronic products, and would be prepared to pay extra for this feature, according to Netgear.

The company, which unsurprisingly makes wireless products, polled 1,000 punters coming out of Habitat and found 51 per cent would pay at least 10 per cent more to be rid of the spaghetti of cables between various electronic boxes.

20 per cent felt that the more complex a product, the more likely things would go wrong. But 55 per cent said well-known brands would play a big factor in choosing which model to buy - perhaps giving them the confidence to overcome worries that the device might break down.

However, in spite of a consumer hunger to get rid of wires in the living room, it may be some time before shops are selling wireless tellies and so on.

Manda Rigby, Netgear's MD for UK and Ireland told us that even with existing technology it is possible, at least in theory, to drop the wires. 'The network between a wireless access point and a laptop or PC is much more reliable than the public Internet, so with the bandwidth available from technologies such as 802.11g or Super-G there should be no problem streaming video or audio as long as there is a reasonable signal available. Even 802.11b should be perfectly capable of streaming audio, and this protocol is being used in wireless audio products including our own MP101 digital music player,' she said.

However Jim Thomsen Senior Product Manager at US Robotics said that this would mean wireless consumer electronics would need additional technology built in to the wireless component - or client -to understand the various signals. 'Depending on the device the wireless client is connected to, the wireless client may also need to convert/decode the signal to the signal format of the device being connected to. An example would be you are streaming MP3 files from the Internet wirelessly to your home receiver. The wireless client would need to convert the Wireless signal to RCA or Digital Audio to connect to the receiver,' he said.

And Thomsen isn't entirely convinced that current wireless standards will prove robust enough for the sorts of tasks consumers will demand. 'As a WLAN manufacture there is work for us to do,' he said. 'We need to make advancements in wireless bandwidth and quality of service. Although WLANs today easily accommodate a Broadband connection and home networking, streaming MP3s and HDTV clearly will push the limits of the technology. Standards like 802.11e (quality of service) and 802.11n (next generation higher speed wireless) clearly are targeted to address these issues though.'

Rigby added 'The standard was only ratified last year, and has yet to be implemented in any available products as far as I know, but we are keeping a close eye on it.'

Another of the issues that consumers are already fearful of are that the devices won't work. Adopters of wireless networks in a computer environment may have already experienced problems connecting wireless devices from different brands, even if they operate over the same standard. Rigby said: 'Consumer demand for new products and requirements for higher bandwidths sometimes gets ahead of what is formally ratified [by the IEEE organisation]. So manufacturers, ourselves included, can occasionally jump the gun when trying to get an exciting new product to market. These issues tend to be short term, and can be quickly fixed once the standards are agreed. Where there have been issues of compatibility we have always moved quickly to release new firmware upgrades to ensure complete interoperability and standards compliance.'