As part of the company’s exhibition at this week’s 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV, Cambridge Consultants announced a “Whitespace TV” technology demonstration.
“Whitespace TV” will showcase Cambridge Consultants’ novel cognitive radio technology by enabling wireless television streaming to many different television sets over whitespace frequencies. Digital video recorders like Tivo and video on demand services such as Hulu have been growing in popularity in recent years as consumers increasingly enjoy the ability to design their own TV viewing schedules. However, it is very difficult to access that content throughout the home as the cable box is normally only linked to the main television in the house.
Whitespace, the frequency abandoned by the digital TV switchover, and the additional spectrum provided by whitespace radio, increase the total video streaming capacity of unlicensed spectrum considerably. Whitespace frequencies (around 600 MHz) have far greater natural range and penetration, and as such can provide much needed spectrum diversity for emerging wireless products. Also, the proprietary InCognito™ spectral sensing technology can quickly identify spare channels in the TV band, offering a key building block for companies wishing to exploit the newly available spectrum.
