--Group is Developing New Interface for Interactive TV and CE Networking
An industry group called the DIVA Consortium was officially launched
last month in Guangzhou at the 2008 China Digital Living Forum &
Showcase, an event targeted at the Chinese consumer electronics
industry. The charter members of the new consortium include a number
of major Chinese consumer electronics and home appliance
manufacturers, such as TCL; Chang Hong Electric; Skyworth Group;
Hisense Electric; Konka Group; Haier; SVA Information Industry;
Panda Electronics; and Synerchip.
The event also saw the China Video Industry Association (CVIA)
announce support for the new consortium, which says that its goal is to
create a "new interface for next-generation interactive digital television
and consumer electronics networking," and which claims to have
developed interface technology that will combine uncompressed HD
video, multichannel audio, and high-bandwidth, bi-directional data
transfer over a single cable. Once connected via the DIVA interface,
the organization says, consumer electronics devices will be networked
locally so that they can be easily set up and controlled from any
television set on the DIVA network, and pass video, audio and bulk
data between one another. "We are excited that DIVA enables
interactive digital TV and networking among CE devices in future
digital homes," the CVIA's secretary general, Weimin Bai, said in a
prepared statement. "Combining uncompressed and compressed AV
interfaces and home networking with a secure, personal domain-based
content-protection technology will allow Chinese CE makers to take
the lead in developing products for a fully connected interactive digital
home. We are especially pleased that this next-generation interface
technology is originating in China and looking forward to becoming a
successful global standard worldwide."
DIVA claims that "unlike current industry interface standards" its
technology combines a reliable, high-speed bi-directional data channel
with an uncompressed video and audio channel to enable end-users to
connect, configure and control various home CE devices from their
digital TV's. The organization says that the technology enables an
8B/10B encoded forward channel for transporting uncompressed video
up to 13.5Gbps, which is capable of handling video transmissions "well
beyond 1080p resolution with deep color and high refresh rates." In
addition, DIVA claims, the technology enables a high-speed,
bi-directional hybrid data channel which can operate at up to 2.25Gbps
and which can be divided into subchannels that transport audio,
commands and bulk data. The protocol for this hybrid channel can be
bridged to other wired and wireless interfaces, the organization says,
allowing DIVA interface products to easily connect to a home network
that is comprised of a variety of devices. At the China Digital Living
Forum & Showcase, the protocol was demo'd working over a single
CAT6 cable with eight wires (four differential pairs). "By merging
multimedia and data communication over a single interface, the DIVA
standard is poised to take digital home networking to a new level,
fulfilling the promise of making DTV the center of the home
entertainment network," Synerchip executive chairman, David Lee said
in a prepared statement. Added TCL senior engineer, Weidong Huang:
"For consumer electronics manufacturers, today's digital interfaces are
point-to-point connections that are limited in their ability to
accommodate a network of devices. We look forward to offering the
ability to connect multiple source devices to multiple displays, to
monitor and control various digital home appliances from the TV in the
living room, and to organize various personal and mobile entertainment
devices in the same home network."
