Ultrawideband, a New Faster Way to Connect

Wired News reports on Ultrawideband technology, which makes it possible to do things like stream high-definition television signals throughout the home, send video shot on a digital recorder live across the internet, and even connect a digital music player to a car’s stereo system — all with a wireless connection.

Dating back to the 1960s, ultrawideband was once a classified military technology whose earliest applications weren’t so much in communications as in tracking stealth aircraft and the like, said Bruce Watkins, chief executive of Pulselink, a San Diego start-up focusing on the platform.
Industry experts and analysts see ultrawideband complementing both Wi-Fi, which now transmits data downstream at up to 54 megabits per second, and ultimately WiMax, a high-speed wireless technology in the early stages of development that works over much greater distances.

“There is an effort underway to standardize ultrawideband,” Mathias said. “And assuming that happens, we expect the market to be very big.”

Aesthetically conscious consumers would appreciate the high-speed wireless streaming of HDTV signals through the home — meaning, for example, no cables snaking up to the wall-mounted plasma TV.

At the same time, he said, the rapid transmission rate of Ultrawideband could even allow consumers to, in real time, broadcast DVD-quality video from a camera to friends and family over the Internet. “They can watch the video while I’m filming it,” Watkins said.