CES 2008: Wired networks set to win out in the home

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Wired rather than wireless networks are set to dominate many aspects of home networking, according to industry analysts Gartner.

Short-range wireless technologies including Ultra Wideband, wireless USB and ZigBee had been expected to oust cables as the preferred way to hook up devices including digital cameras, music players, camera phones and camcorders to TVs and other entertainment devices.

But a lack of interoperability and the slow development of newer, higher-speed connections have forced consumer electronics companies to look again at wired connections, including HDMI and even wired Ethernet.

At this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, network equipment manufacturers were showing routers and other home networking equipment that uses the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard to connect PCs around the home, to share broadband connections and even to distribute high-definition video. IT companies such as Netgear, D-Link and HP showed 802.11n routers and "media extenders", whilst Samsung also entered the networking equipment market at CES.

But even where users are setting up wireless networks to move data around the home or office, they are invariably having to turn to wires, rather than short-range wireless, to connect networking gear to their entertainment devices. Netgear's 5 GHz Wireless-N HD Access Point/Bridge uses 802.11n to connect to the net but needs a wired connection to hook up to a games console or set-top box. Sharp showed TVs equipped with Ethernet sockets for remote diagnostics and limited content downloads, and Samsung also has a range of Ethernet-equipped PCs.

And manufacturers also appear to be shying away from wireless to connect portable devices such as cameras and camcorders. Although the number of Bluetooth-equipped speaker systems continues to grow, for example, the silicon manufacturers are investing heavily in chipsets that will allow consumers to use their devices' existing HDMI connections to transfer images and video.

"There is a battle going on between wireless and wired connectivity in the living room," said Paul O'Donovan, principal analyst at Gartner. "There was the idea that mobile devices would connect wirelessly to your TV, but the HDMI Alliance is pushing low-powered docks to connect camcorders to the TV, and using the TV's remote to control them. The consumer electronics [silicon] manufacturers, including Silicon Image, Analogue Devices and NXP are all very interested in wired connections. It is pushing wireless connections away."

Bandwidth constraints and consumers' growing interest in high-definition content, is one reason for the renewed interest in wired connections.

Uncompressed video flowing from a Blu-Ray disk player to an HD TV runs at 4.9Gb/sec. HDMI 1.3 supports data speeds of up to 10.2Gb/sec. However, if mass market consumer devices shun higher-speed wireless connections such as Ultra Wideband, these technologies will also be more difficult, or more expensive to implement in business equipment.

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