We missed its formation back in February but the new DiiVA (Device Interactive Interface for Video and Audio) group seems to mean that yet another cabling standard for the digital home has sneaked into the arena ‘ this one supported by LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Agilent, MediaTek, Tektronix, Foxconn, and JAE.
Sony and Philips as well as Toshiba are a little conspicuous by their absence from this list, through they may well be in discussions to join DiiVa or are still watching and waiting.
This new membership list, announced at NAB along with the fact that the first design is ready to implement into components, is to push interactivity into TVs, set-top boxes, DVD and Blu-ray players, AV receivers, PCs, game consoles and mobile devices, which the group says will be able to connect to one another and share media, using the TV as the main interface.
The group hopes that consumer products using the DiiVA technology (not really a standard as it has not gone through a standards body) will be available in various global regions at the beginning of 2010.
The system requires a single, low-cost cable (CAT6 LAN cable) to handle both the transmission of uncompressed video and audio plus bi-directional high-speed data and audio, and will offer both Ethernet and USB connectivity over the same cable.
This will immediately raise the hackles of suppliers of competing cabling standards like MoCA, HPNA as well as Wireless HD connection standards ‘ although DiiVa may be destined for the parts of the world where they are still happy to lay cable all over the house rather than the wireless constrained markets of the US and Europe.
The mission is led by Chinese CE manufacturers Changhong, Haier, Hisense, Konka, Panda, Skyworth, SVA, TCL and chip developer, Synerchip, and the DiiVA consortium has the support of the Chinese national, regional and local governments. Nearly 70% of the world’s TVs are made in China and it wants to push one of its own technologies for connectivity.
The DiiVA specification is open to companies developing CE products such as TVs, set-top boxes, DVD and Blu-ray players, AV receivers, PCs, game consoles and mobile devices and enabling technology.
The aim is that this will produce easy access to internet-based content at the TV, allow for content discovery and device control from any DiiVA-enabled TV and an overall reduction in cabling around each home (just one cable everywhere) and let you play a games console from any TV in the house
DiiVA supports 13.5Gbps of bandwidth dedicated to video and over 2Gbps aggregate bandwidth in the Hybrid Channel for bi-directional data and audio. DiiVA will also simultaneously support HDCP 2.0 and DTCP-IP content protection systems for uncompressed and compressed video streams
The DiiVA specification includes transport and network layers that enable video streams, audio, and data packets to be securely routed from any source to any display on the DiiVA home network. Additionally, the DiiVA specification will provide connectivity and charging power to portable devices.
You might think that this is a rival to the DLNA work that is going on, but the announcement says that it can be a facilitator for DLNA and says it has the opportunity to play a significant role in creating a larger market for home multimedia networks.