Wireless video will be the next big thing, if IHS iSuppli's latest forecast is correct-- WW wireless-video-enabled device shipments will reach 241.1m units by 2015.

Global shipments for such devices total just 6.6m for 2010.

Why such rapid growth? Customers, of course, demanding access to the kind of HD programming they have at home anywhere, on any device. Such demand is the fuel driving further advancement in wireless video technology.

According to iSuppli, video downloads on mobile devices alone will grow by 192% over the next 4 years-- reaching 1.5Bn downloads by 2014 (from 2010's 540m). Meanwhile IPTV shipments will reach 160m units in 2014 from 2010's 26m, growth of nearly 500%.

Newer mobile phones already carry HDMI-compatible interfaces (via Silicon Image's MHL technology), and Apple's iPad2 has HDMI support and HD video output.

Parallel to these advances is the manufacturers' adopting advanced internet-ready features in blu-ray players and digital TVs.

HDMI founder Silicon Image's recent acquisition of WirelessHD standard founder SiBeam points to a future of HD connections based on the company's millimeter wave solutions-- while the Wifi and WiGig Alliances work on gigabit-per-second wifi standards.

Thus, more HD content will be reaching the small screens, driving wireless video technology adoption ever further.

Go IHS iSuppli: 241m Wireless-Video-Enabled Devices to Ship by 2015

IEEE is developing a standard called P1905, an abstraction layer allowing devices and services to work over any of the four main extent home networking technologies — HomePlug AV over power lines, MoCA over coaxial cable, Ethernet over Cat 5 twisted pair cable and Wi-Fi for wireless.

Paul Houzé of France Telecom-Orange is the Chair of IEEE P1905.1 Working Group, says  “Creating a bridge between the world’s most popular wired and wireless technologies will bring much-needed synergy, making home networks easier to use and elevating their overall performance.”

Rather than a gateway or an application to recognize which physical network is present, P1905 brings together the four technologies in a single abstraction layer interface that would use the option available or best-performing option at a particular time.

Sounds good, but why another home networking standard? Because it's now clear that no single physical technology will dominate home networking: several will coexist in many individual homes as well as the market in general.  And clearly IEEE feels (while they see many banner-bearers) there is no victorious unifying solution in sight.

The powerful ITU recently called for a G.Hn standard, a universal physical interface designed to integrate coax, power lines, Wi-Fi and Ethernet into a single physical network. P1905 would instead operate at a higher level, rejecting the need for integration at the physical level.

Yet G.Hn components would not be backwards compatible with existing MoCA, HomePlug or Wi-Fi ones. Nor does G.Hn yield any performance improvements over MoCA and the other existing physical standards-- it would simply replaces these by raising an umbrella of an interface.

Instead of adding a new dominant flavour as G.Hn urges, P1902 acts as the ice cream cone that might support a twist of vanilla and chocolate flavours.

Many say the market will choose the winner of this argument. We say the market is a poor chooser (otherwise we wouldn't have thsi problem in the first place.)

Indeed the market seems to prefer the wild chaos of diversity to the tamer order imposed by a single standard. We will probably see these unifying standards proliferating, running wild and freely co-existing.  Just like the technologies they had hoped to lasso and haul into into their own technology corral, these standards will all build and maintain separate corrals, sharing the ranch on the free range known as home networking.

Go IEEE P1905

Netgear promises to improve your clients' wifi networks' coverage with its WN3000RP universal wifi range extender, eliminating their wireless dead spot problems.

The extender keeps things simple by using no cables-- it plugs into any electrical outlet, while LED indicators help one find the best location for optimal coverage (usually half-way between the home router and the dead spot in question).

Through Push 'N' Connect (using WPS) it should also connect easily to both computers and routers. It also carries an ethernet port, allowing it to act as a bridge for home theatre device connection.

The company says it works with any wireless b/g/n router or gateway with all security standards, including WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, mixed mode and WEP.

Go Netgear Universal Wifi Range Extender

CEDIA's latest white paper, Network Security Best Practices, covers exactly what its title says-- security for IEEE 802.11x and 802.3 standard-based WLAN installations in residential environments.

The wite paper covers network security in 3 parts-- securing the router from WAN attack, securing wireless networks and securing the LAN and individual devices-- basically serving as a guide for contractors responsible for clients' networks.

CEDIA expects contractors to understand home networking fundamentals as consumers increasingly connect more IP-enabled devices on their home networks.

The white paper is available for download on CEDIA's online marketplace, together with its previous white papers.

Go CEDIA Marketplace

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) releases a new set of video playback interoperability guidelines at this year's Connected Home Global Summit.

A result of work with global cable, satellite and telecommunications providers the guidelines leverage DTCP-IP protecting streaming, which the DLNA says simplifies content availability for playback on digital TVs, blu-ray players, games consoles and STBs.

The new guidelines are already part of Cablelabs' tru2way home networking specification and associated open source reference implementation (which enables secure cable content transfer to DLNA-certified devices).

The DLNA should start certifying products to these guidelines later this year.

Go DLNA

Netgear announces its N600 wireless dual band ADSL+2 modem router (DGND3700), combining an ADSL+2 modem with Netgear's own WNDR3700 wireless router.

It's also Netgear's first home router to carry a dual-core processor.

The router handles simultaneous 802.11n dual band networking and 2.4 and 5 GHz, with the 5 GHz band providing a les interference-prone channel for media streaming and networked gaming according to Netgear.

Additional x2 USB ports and Netgear's ReadyShare technology (with the addition of an external USB HDD) allow users to turn the N600 into a shared storage device. Being DLNA-certified, it also streams media from USB HDD to any DLNA-compliant media player.

A separate gigabit ethernet WAN port connects to either high-speed cable or fiber optic broadband modems, providing a measure of future proofing.

Go Netgear