First Uncompressed Wireless HDMI Chipset Enables Cable-Free HDTV Setup While Retaining Wired Image Quality; Radiospire Solution Supports HDTV Formats up to 1080p Plus HDCP Encryption.

LAS VEGAS -- Radiospire Networks today announced the first high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) chipset solution that enables wireless HDTV connectivity without compressing the video signal, eliminating the picture degradation and encryption problems caused by compression. The new chipset provides a cost-effective solution for building products that allow flat panel displays to be placed up to 15 feet away from other video and audio equipment without running cables across the room, sacrificing image quality, producing latency issues, or jeopardizing copyright protections.

The Radiospire technology supports 720p, 1080i and 1080p HDTV formats with industry-standard HDCP encryption, ensuring that all of the content protection in the HDMI signal is retained as the video is transmitted over the air. In contrast, compression-based wireless products, such as those based on 802.15.3a UWB or 802.11n, present encryption challenges that limit their ability to handle copy-protected content.

Radiospire will be conducting private demonstrations of its wireless HDMI solutions at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show that opens today in Las Vegas. The company has also begun sampling its new 720p/1080i/1080p wireless HDMI chipset solution to select customers.

No-Compression Breakthrough

Radiospire's ability to transmit the video signal wirelessly without compression from the input source to the display stems from market-leading throughput rates of up to 3.0Gbps for 1080p.

"Wireless home theater connectivity is becoming a necessity, but until now the solutions available have had major drawbacks because of the use of compression," said Tandhoni Rao, President and CEO of Radiospire Networks. "The bandwidth provided by our new chipset eliminates that issue and all of the associated problems, making it possible to deliver competitively priced wireless HDMI cable replacement products that are equivalent in quality to wired solutions for the first time."

Advantages include:

--Better picture quality, achieved by avoiding blocking artifacts and other visible problems caused by video compression algorithms.

--Better video/audio sync, achieved by eliminating the latency problem associated with signal compression.

--Better error resiliency through advanced error correction technology that yields a bit error rate of 10-9 or better, resulting in cable-like quality.

--Protection of copyrighted content, based on Radiospire's best-in-class bandwidth and the associated ability to pass the HDCP encrypted data stream directly to the display without the complications of compression.

--Lower cost, made possible by eliminating the need for extra computing power to compress the video signal.

The new chipset solution consists of a SiGe RF transceiver chip, ADC/DAC, and a CMOS baseband device. It operates in the 3.1-4.8GHz range to avoid interference with 802.11b/g/n and 802.11a devices that operate in the 2.4 GHz and 5.1-5.85 GHz bands, respectively. The 720p/1080i configuration is sampling now with 1080p to follow in 2H06.

About Radiospire Networks

Radiospire is a fabless semiconductor supplier that is pioneering high-performance and cost-effective wireless HDMI connectivity solutions for today's home theater equipment. The company sells chipset solutions to OEMs for integration into HDTVs, DVD players and other consumer electronics products. The firm also supplies reference designs and ODM solutions enabling consumer electronics companies to build aftermarket dongle solutions quickly and effectively. For more information, visit www.radiospire.com.