Look Ma! No Wires!!

CNN had an interesting article recently on the latest trend in flat panel technology: wireless technologies for high definition screens. The latest buzz has a couple of competing "standards" duking it out (can you say HD-DVD/Blu-Ray wars all over again?).

Anyways, the outcome of all this is sure to be of interest to anyone deploying digital signage. After all, running and hiding all that wiring is never easy and it can be quite expensive. Wouldn't it be nice to bring power to the screen and have the video signal "beam" to the TV without the need for additional cabling?

However, don't expect to be able to position the "transmitter" hundreds of feet away. Preliminary specs mention a 30' range but this is for consumer products. Wait for commercial grade products from companies like Minicom to eventually release wireless technologies of their own that take advantage of any emerging standard.

As with every new technology, wireless displays are going to cost way too much for large digital signage rollouts but there are projects where this technology will be used (regardless of the cost). Think of all the locations where you just can't run all the necessary wiring to every screen.

We may see wireless digital signage installations sooner than you think.
So what's next? Holographic displays?