Xpike hits Wireless HDMI market

HAN Fan thinks that the cable replacement market is niche and observes it is a very confused market. But there are times when replacing a $10 HDMI cable with a $600 $160 pair of hot boxes might not be a good idea--like when you need to connect you laptop to that pesky HD projector on the ceiling.

Xpike has introduced a pair of  boxes that "transmit 1080p content up to 30 feet" using WHDI technology. The HDelight MSRP is $179.99, but on www.brite-view.com, it is available for pre-order for $159.99.

HAN Fan congratulates Xpike (aka brite-view)on the excellent price point for a bleeding edge complex product. If there is a non-niche cable replacement market, then these guys have product that will start to prove it (or not).

The transmitter is USB powered which is very neat idea. The receiver has a 5VDC jack, which should have been USB if the HDelighht was to be totally neat.

HDelight receiver

[If you geeks are using 802.11a or 5Ghz 802.11n, be  aware that WHMI based products can interfere with any WiFi on the 5GHz band. WHMI 2.0 is said to fix this.]

HDelight transmitter

And now for a bit of trash-talk from Xpike comparing wireless cable replacement technologies.

IEEE 1901 now the powerline networking standard

HAN Fan is hearing that this week the IEEE will do the final approval of the  IEEE 1901 specification make it the powerline networking standard. She's also been told that the approval is a done deal and to expect a press release real soon now.

With HomePlug already doing interop certification for IEEE 1901 between three chip vendors, the IEEE needed to hurry-up.

In-Stat pumping forecasts Wireless HD Video market

Pumping even more ABI Research's forecast of "two million 60 GHz chipset shipments in 2015", In-Stat is going all-in with their forecast of "wireless HD video-enabled device shipments...to about 13 million by 2014". From the article:

Brian O’Rourke, Principal Analyst.  “Most semiconductor players pursuing this space plan to move out from HDTVs to other CE devices, like set-top boxes, blue laser players and recorders, and digital cameras.”

The only problem with this, besides replacing a $10 HDMI cable with a $600 pair of hot boxes might not be a good idea, is Wireless HD cannot "move out from HDTV", is, as the article points out, "HD video-enabled device shipments [are] almost nothing at present".


This insightful study is available for $3,495 U.S. Dollars from the Insite website. HAN Fan is sure that Insite will make money on the study as the proponents of this cable replacement technology will surely use it to pump their numbers with VCs.

Sigma/Coppergate's Vapourware HomePlug AV chip performs better than real chips

Sigma is promoting "ClearPath Technology" to solve the noise problem powerline technology is open to. It is based on Sigma's MIMO implementation for HomePlug AV. Mike does a great demo video, but does not explain that he is afraid to send their chip to HomePlug's Interop Plugfest. Why is Mike so worried.

HomePlug Interop Plugfest - Sigma/Coppergate is MIA

HomePlug announced an Interop Plugfest for the vendors of HomePlug AV-IEEE 1901 chips.

• Atheros Communications is  there.
• Gigle Networks is there.
• SPiDCOM Technologies, the latest compliant  HomePlug AV chip vendor,  is  there.

But missing is HAN Fan's favourite MIMO enhancing HomePlug AV chip vendor, Sigma/Coppergate. Surely they would not be late with product for the "10 new customers for their HomePlug AV chip" Sigma's CEO announced during their Q2 earnings conference call.  They must have a great strategy to sell chips that are not shown to the public.