Can You Really Deliver Error-Free 1080p Over Long Distances? You Can With Active HDMI Digital Interconnects!

noemail@vizionware.com — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 17:00:00 GMT

Industry View

Over the last decade we have seen tremendous advances in HDTV technologies. Entire product categories were spawned to enable HDTV. Certainly one of the more significant innovations was the introduction of HDMI as a digital interconnect standard for products delivering HD video and audio. Introduced in late 2002, HDMI provided the ability to run high definition video and audio over a single wire, eliminating what usually took at least nine cables to achieve. The importance of HDMI can perhaps best be judged by the fact that currently over 650 companies have licensed the technology and are incorporating it into their products. VizionWare™ is at the forefront of that group.

The Dark Side

The HDMI standard was originally developed by industry giants including Sony, Panasonic, Philips, and Hitachi. These companies have very large consumer products divisions, and HDMI was designed for consumer retail markets and customers. However, there were two main shortcomings: the connector was a fairly delicate 19-pin with no latching mechanism, and cable runs were typically five meters or less.

A Passive HDMI Approach to Cabling

To provide digital interconnects for all of the new HDMI-enabled components introduced into the market, existing cable manufacturers quickly designed HDMI cables based on the same passive cabling techniques that were successfully used for many years in analog cable implementations.
These cables worked just fine at 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i, even at lengths of up to 15 meters. But as 1080p content begins to become pervasive in the market, these passive cabling products are no longer able to provide error-free video over cable lengths past 6 to 7 meters. This is due to the fact that 1080p has a bandwidth that is four times that of 480p. Complicating this matter even further is the fact that HDMI has gone through three major and three minor revisions to add greater bandwidth and additional capabilities. Sales of 1080p-capable televisions and sources have increased dramatically over the past six months, and will continue to do so for quite some time. Check out these statistics: In the 4th quarter of 2006, 1080p sales represented less than 5 percent of total television sales. In just nine months that number is now over 35 percent of total television sales. While many living room and family room installations may not require cable lengths of longer than 7 meters, almost every custom home theatre and whole-house audio/video installation requires cabling runs that are often several times that length. As installers begin to deploy HDMI into these more complex installations, where 1080p sources and displays are installed, and longer cables lengths are required, passive HDMI cabling performance has declined dramatically, and in many cases fails to display acceptable 1080p video performance.
Several companies offer external signal amplifiers and discrete equalization products to minimize
the shortcomings in passive cables, but many of these add-ons produce marginal results, and in
certain cases can even make the picture look worse, and can add significant cost to the interconnect budget.

VizionWare Hi-Wires™—The Active Answer To HDMI
In February of 2007 VizionWare introduced a full line of HDMI and DVI digital interconnects that take a radically different approach. After considering the present and potential future issues surrounding Ben Jamison, VizionWare
Can You Really Deliver Error-Free 1080p Over Long Distances?
You Can With Active HDMI Digital Interconnects!
1 Widescreen Review • Issue 127 • January 2008

Industry View
How to best deliver error-free HD over longer distances, we developed and integrated several core technologies into two small electronics modules—one to transmit signal and one to receive these signals at the other end of a digital link. These modules were then embedded into the HDMI connector heads at either end of a host of HDMI and DVI cables of lengths ranging from 1 to 30 meters. By using both transmit and receive electronics at each end of the cable, VizionWare's Hi-Wires HDMI cables are able to characterize the signal at the output of the source and then compare it at the other
end of the cable before it is displayed. The link is optimized to deliver error-free 1080p video and audio—just as it was sampled at the source—at the display, over any supported distances. Simply put, it creates a fully protected link that is seamless and transparent from source to sink.
The complete line is designed to HDMI 1.3 Category 2 standards for maximum compatibility. Since they are active, they are powered using a small A/C adapter that can be plugged in at either end of the cable, wherever supplying power is more convenient. Another benefit of this fully active implementation is that a much smaller gauge cable can be used, resulting in cables that are much lighter and more flexible than traditional passive cables, simplifying installation significantly. Finally, all of this technology does not cost any more than most other premium brand passive HDMI cables. Despite being a relative newcomer to the industry, VizionWare has garnered much praise, has received a number of prestigious industry awards, and has been endorsed and partnered with several larger and well-respected players in the industry, including Runco and Vidikron, Sharp, Fujitsu, SIM2, Stewart Filmscreen, CodexNovus, and Halcro Logic.

The Future's So Bright. . .
At the 2007 CEDIA Expo in Denver, CO, VizionWare debuted several new products, including longer lengths of HDMI and DVI up to 100 meters, as well as a high-performance VZ-S5100 HDMI switcher/ digital audio synchronizer. The company also displayed a full line of DVI interconnect products and a host of installer-friendly accessory products for HDMI and DVI that significantly simplify cable installation and reliability. These products include HDMI and HDMI-to-DVI swivel adapters, a locking mount for VizionWare's HDMI cable products, and pull-through socks for HDMI and DVI that protect cable connectors as they are installed in walls and conduit.
Our plans are to expand our line of interconnect products in the coming year, as well as introduce several new switching and distribution products targeted at custom residential, professional A/V, and specialty online A/V sales channels. WSR
The Author
Ben Jamison is Vice President of VizionWare based in Austin, Texas. Please visit www.vizionware.com or phone 512 493 9660, or contact Ben by e-mailing him at bjamison@vizionware.com.

Widescreen Review • Issue 127 • January 2008 2
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6-Jan-07 11:00 AM