First-ever joint working group moves toward wireless WiGig DisplayPort certification

Santa Clara, CA November 15, 2012 - The high-speed, wire-free dream is moving closer to reality today, with the announcement of a major new industry partnership between the Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) Alliance and the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). WiGig and VESA have established a highly effective, joint working group to advance the WiGig DisplayPort video standard certification.

This new joint working group will address interoperability between the DisplayPort standard and WiGig’s own Display Extension Protocol Adaption Layer (PAL). When the group’s work is complete, DisplayPort certified WiGig devices will be able to seamlessly interconnect without the need for any wires, providing a DisplayPort interface without the use of a DisplayPort cable.

Ali Sadri, president and chairman of the WiGig Alliance, says WiGig DisplayPort technology would be a great leap forward for consumers looking for the truly natural wireless experience.  “High-definition wireless display is a fundamental pillar of the WiGig Docking Station,” said Sadri. “We have taken a different approach to the untethered devices by providing an unprecedented cable equivalent display technology without compromising on the quality of service.  DisplayPort is already one of the most widely established display connection technologies for PCs and it is imperative that future WiGig devices are compatible. Having a joint working group is a great step along the road to full interoperability.”

The WiGig Alliance is responsible for developing the most advanced 60GHz multigigabit wireless standards, capable of transmitting at speeds of up to 7Gbps. VESA created, owns and certifies DisplayPort, which according to analyst firm IDC will be featured in 89.5 percent of commercial desktops and 95 percent of commercial notebooks by 2014.

“VESA recognizes WiGig’s enormous potential to enhance the user experience for portable devices.  Consumers and professionals are becoming increasingly aware of DisplayPort’s image quality and advanced capabilities, and adding a wireless extension to DisplayPort further diversifies the DisplayPort protocol,” said Bill Lempesis, executive director of VESA.  “By working together we can maintain the high standards set by DisplayPort’s certification process whilst extending the reach through enabling wireless functionality. This could be a killer app for WiGig and one that we are really excited to be a part of.”

WiGig Alliance published its Display PAL, known as WiGig Display Extension (WDE), in 2011. The specification was developed to support PC peripherals, HDTVs, monitors, and projectors. The spec also supports the latest High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) encryption and is capable of the transmission of both compressed and uncompressed video.

This latest news follows WiGig’s second Plugfest earlier this year, a very successful Taipei Computex Executive Summit and its centre-stage billing at the Intel Developer Forum in September.

For further information about WiGig visit the website at www.wigig.org.