1394 Trade Association Introduces First Global Standard for Networking Entertainment Devices Over Coaxial Cable

New Specification Delivers Industry’s Fastest ‘No New Wires’ Multimedia Home Network; Co-Exists with Cable TV Signals

DALLAS — The 1394 Trade Association today announced the adoption of the first global standard for networking digital content over coaxial cables using Ultra Wideband (UWB) communications. The new standard is designed to enable the industry’s fastest whole-home network in a multi-supplier ecosystem featuring protected high-definition and multimedia content.

The 1394 Trade Association’s “no new wires” home networking standard provides data rates up to 800 Megabits per second, enabling a high-speed multimedia home network that can work with all 1394 and IP-enabled devices over coax wiring. The MAC/PHY layers specified in the new standard are available now in a new chipset from Pulse~LINK using its CWave® UWB technology. CWave features guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) and data rate performance never before achieved over existing in-home coax cabling.

“Given the guaranteed Quality of Service, content protection and bandwidth of 1394 – and now the ability to deliver these benefits over existing coax throughout the home – we consider this new standard to be a significant development in support of next generation home networking,” said Wilt Hildenbrand, Senior Advisor Engineering and Technology for Cablevision Systems Corp. “With today’s high-definition digital set-top-boxes already incorporating a 1394 port, this new global standard can unlock the value and the positive consumer benefits this port was always intended to deliver.”

“TI is pleased that a global standard for 1394 over coaxial cable has been adopted to address home networking issues with a high-performance solution,” said Daniel Mar, Texas Instruments 1394 marketing manager. “This standard will lead to a new era, in which consumers can easily, cost-effectively and securely share throughout the home multiple HD video streams and Internet content with superior quality of service.”

This new standard also serves as the basis for the whole-home networking backbone as defined by the High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance (HANA). HANA solutions enable consumers to share premium quality HD content across audio-video devices in a trusted environment. HANA, a cross-industry organization comprised of leading content providers, service providers, consumer electronic manufacturers and technology companies, chose 1394 for whole-home distribution of premium content because of its guaranteed QoS and DTCP security. Many of the guidelines for development of HANA-enabled products will be based on the new 1394 Over Coax Specification.

“Moving entertainment content around the home requires a robust networking technology with end-to-end Quality of Service, ensuring that a movie or program will play without interruption,” said Bill Rose, marketing work group chair for the 1394 Trade Association. “By combining the CWave MAC/PHY performance with the digital rights protection inherent in 1394, and designing it to coexist with all of the services already using the coax wiring in today’s homes, we have created the ideal solution for networking high-definition entertainment devices.”

“After more than two years of close collaboration with the 1394 Trade Association and member companies, Pulse~LINK is proud to be a part of the first International standard to incorporate UWB over coax,” said John Santhoff, Pulse~LINK co-founder and CTO. “Pulse-LINK’s contribution of its substantial Intellectual Property (IP) into this standard opens a true whole-home HD networking experience of 1394 and IP content to consumers globally.”

For readers who want more detail, a comprehensive 1394 Over Coax white paper entitled “Home Entertainment Networks and Flying Cars” is available.

Known commercially as FireWire™ and i.LINK™, 1394 has shipped more than 1 billion ports in a wide range of consumer, computer, industrial and other products since its inception, and is now emerging as a vital standard for the distribution of protected high-definition content throughout the home.