Operators get wireless home-networking pitch: ViXs system sends video to multiple devices

Cable World, Jan 7, 2002 by Richard Cole

Take a humble Motorola DCT-2000 set-top box and add a $150 ViXs chip and software. Then watch as it transmits video wirelessly to one television, then another, then a personal computer screen, a laptop computer and a Compaq iPAQpersonal digital assistant (PDA), all at the same time.

Each device is set to a different channel. Each device--even the PDA--has personal video recorder (PVR) controls and can independently pause, rewind or fast-forward the video.

Then take the laptop or the PDA and walk 100 feet, two or three rooms away. The quality of the video and PVR function remains the same.

That's the demonstration Toronto-based ViXs performed at the Western Cable Show in November and is currently showing cable operators, set-top manufacturers and consumer electronics companies throughout North America.

"We want cable operators to understand that wireless home networking is on the near horizon," Roy Stewart, ViXs's SVP for interactive technologies, told Cable World. "We can deliver broadcast-quality video to multiple devices via an IP [Internet protocol] network."

Networking televisions, sound systems and personal computers in the home constitute a promising revenue stream for cable companies, and multiple system operators, including Comcast and Rogers Cable, are currently in trials seeking to make that promise pay off.

But trying to hard-wire together so many devices is virtually impossible, leading home-networking advocates to push wireless links. For data and audio, wireless performs admirably. But transmitting quality video, especially with PVR capability, has never measured up.

"The very fundamental mission is how do you effectively get advanced digital services to more than one place in the home without breaking the piggy bank, and putting a big fancy box on top of each TV isn't the way," says James Reinhart, ViXs's SVP-product development.

His company's wireless solution can do exactly that, he says.

At least one cable operator is taking a close look at ViXs technology, especially its control of bit rates, or quality of service.

"We're very interested in this," says Mike Lee, Rogers's VP and GM for Interactive Television. "And it's not just the video. We think quality of service when it comes to wireless, and this could definitely be part of the solution."

ViXs has also talked to Moxi executives about working with that company, says Moxi spokeswoman Gina Aumiller.

And with ViXs's many Motorola connections--Reinhart himself is a 17-year Motorola veteran--the odds-on betting is that ViXs is talking with that set-top manufacturer as well. A Motorola spokesperson did not return a call. ViXs has "handshake agreements" with several companies, but not signed contracts, says Stewart. Even so, he predicted trials in the second half of this year and deployments as early as the first quarter of 2003. How ViXs handles multiple video streams with different devices over an 802.11b wireless network--Reinhart says the solution is also compatible with 802.11a and the upcoming 802.11g standards--is a jealously guarded secret. The company will say publicly only that it involves a chip set and software solution that fit easily into a DCT-2000 or equivalent, with no equipment or changes needed at the head-end for cable operators.

But as Lee indicated, the key to ViXs technology is controlling quality of service, which in turn translates into preventing bits from bunching up in the pipeline, forcing the network to drop portions of the stream.

"This is really the secret of taming an IP network," says Reinhart. "IP networks congest almost by design. If you let them congest, video goes bad and you drop frames. What we ensure is that the network never congests."

That means keeping track of each stream, as well as the demands of the device at the other end, in order to maximize the quality of every stream.

Reinhart concedes that high-definition television will further strain the wireless network but says ViXs technology can meet the HDTV challenge as well.

In the end, he says, the technology issues will be resolved, and the projected $150 per box price tag is likely to drop.

ViXs's message to cable operators, Stewart says, is that wireless video technology that once seemed years down the line is available today, and it could pay off soon for MSOs, because consumers will gladly pay for the extra value home networking will give them.

"When we show that this PDA can now become your personal TV and you can watch CNN or Band of Brothers on the patio drinking a cup of coffee or reading the Sunday Times, it just blows people away," Stewart says. "It really generates a whole new set of services."