WirelessHD® 60GHz CE Products Arrive in Europe
Consortium Experiences Significant Growth With New Membership and First Products Available at Retail in Europe
SUNNYVALE, Calif. & BERLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 20090903 -- The WirelessHD® Consortium, currently comprised of leaders in the consumer electronics and personal computing industries, today announced that the European Union has approved the 60GHz band for unlicensed commercial use and WirelessHD products are now available in Europe. Signaling continued interest and growth, the Consortium also announced that Philips and others have joined WirelessHD, bringing membership to over 40 companies worldwide. Products with WirelessHD technology will be showcased in various locations at the IFA Expo in Berlin.
EU Approves the 60GHz WirelessHD Standard
The European Commission recently approved the 60GHz frequency band for wireless connectivity. As such, the Commission, the EU's executive body and main telecommunications regulator, announced that all 27 member states are approved to sell products that use the 9GHz of continuous spectrum within the 60GHz band (57GHz 66GHz).
The 60GHz band is already approved for similar use in North America, the Asia-Pacific region, Brazil, Russia, India and China.
First WirelessHD Consumer Products Available in Europe
The first WirelessHD Consumer Products tested against the WirelessHD Compliance Test Program are now for sale in Europe, making WirelessHD products now available in every major market worldwide. Compliance Certification Services (CCS), the first WirelessHD Authorized Test Center (ATC), has been in full operation since early 2009 and has completed testing of several products. These products can be seen at several locations at the IFA Berlin Expo, including the following:
Panasonic: Panasonic’s Z1 series with WirelessHD technology is available now for sale in Europe, Asia and North America. (Booth 101 in hall 5.2)
LG Electronics: LG’s LH85 and LH95 LCD TVs are now available in Asia and North America. (Booth 101 in hall 11.2)
Funai Electronic Co., Ltd: Funai is exhibiting a WirelessHD Adapter. (Booth 123, hall 3.2)
Toshiba: Toshiba is also showcasing a WirelessHD Adapter demo. (Booth 101, hall 21)
Additional products from several manufacturers are expected to roll out later this year.
“WirelessHD’s membership momentum and growing product pipeline is a testament to the industry’s increasing acceptance of our technology as a strong and viable option for the future of wireless A/V,” said John Marshall WirelessHD Chairman. “We are eager to support all of our members’ product launches and look forward to the numerous additional products that will be announced throughout the remainder of 2009.”
Philips, Yamaha, Funai, ST Micro and NXP Join WirelessHD
With the first WirelessHD products available in the market, the WirelessHD Consortium continues to experience overwhelming interest from various types of businesses eager to join the WirelessHD ecosystem as adopters and promoters. Philips, who recently joined as a Promoter, will make contributions to the WirelessHD specifications and compliance test programs and will be a full voting member of the Consortium. In addition, Philips is the first company based in Europe to actively participate in the development of WirelessHD technology.
“The WirelessHD Consortium is thriving with over 40 committed promoters and adopters, and continues to gain recognition from the world’s most successful and respected brands in consumer electronics,” said John Marshall, WirelessHD Chairman. “We are excited for Philips to join our efforts in transforming the wireless connectivity landscape and acknowledging the fact that the WirelessHD experience provides the highest quality audio and video available today. The WirelessHD Consortium will benefit from Philips’ experience and leadership in standards as well as A/V technology development and broad market expertise.”
Continued interest in a variety of WirelessHD applications has also attracted new participation across the consumer electronics ecosystem, with the addition of Yamaha and Funai, as well as respected semiconductor companies ST Micro and NXP. Consortium members are also researching new application areas including mobile device connectivity and wireless local area networking (WLAN) as demonstrated at the WirelessHD Interoperability Suite at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show.
The WirelessHD Consortium is dedicated to the advancement and enhancement of the first worldwide 60GHz standard, available since January 2008. For more information on how to become an adopter, please email,
info@wirelesshd.org About WirelessHD
Formed in 2006, Broadcom Corporation, Intel Corporation, LG Electronics Inc., Panasonic Corporation, NEC Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics N.V., SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD, SiBEAM Inc., Sony Corporation and Toshiba Corporation, joined together to define the next generation worldwide 60GHz multi-gigabit millimeter wave technology for mobile and stationary consumer and enterprise applications. WirelessHD is the first consumer electronics and technology industry-supported, digital wireless interface for instantaneous file transfers, wireless display and docking, and simplified and lossless HD media streaming. For more information on WirelessHD, please visit
www.wirelesshd.org.
CONTACT:
Stearns Johnson for WirelessHD
Pamela Njissang, +1-415-397-7600
wirelesshd@stearnsjohnson.com