1.Introduction.
This article examines the facts in the debate surrounding Wired versus Wireless Multimedia Connectivity. The methods used to deploy High Definition video content are analysed in detail to determine the likely outcome in the ongoing Wireless Versus Wired debate. It further examines the outlook for wireless versus wired technologies from the perspective of achievable data rate, security, compression, interoperability and picture quality.

The advent of high definition content with Blu-Ray and HD DVD, HD broadcast and stunning real time HD console gaming continue to drive the bandwidth requirements at a dramatic pace. The most recent specifications for supporting current and future HD content requires a bandwidth as high as 10.8Gbps (in the case of Display Port) and 10.2Gbps (in the case of HDMI). The first part of this article examines the driving forces behind the requirement for ever-increasing bandwidth. The second part of the article compares the bandwidth available with wired solutions and various wireless bands including UWB and 60GHz bands.

2 .Key Factors Driving Bandwidth Requirement.
The key factors driving the requirement for increased bandwidth are:

1. Increasing screen resolution and frame rates
2. Richer colour support
3. The continued requirement for the transmission of protected content in an uncompressed format; and
4. The migration of equipment such as HDTV's and consoles to display in progressive scan mode.

2.1. Screen Resolution:
The HDTV market will evolve rapidly beyond the 720p and 1080p formats supported today to 1440p and beyond in the not-too-distant future. The requirement to drive even larger screen sizes is driven by the availability of display technology in the PC space. Current state of the art display technology is at WQXGA with 2560-1600 resolution. VESA has already defined a WQUXGA standard supporting resolutions of 3840 x 2400. Increasing screen resolution will continue to drive bandwidth requirements into the future. As end-users become aware of the dramatic visual difference experienced with progressive scan they will demand this as standard. Progressive scan doubles the requirement for channel bandwidth.

2.2. Increased Frame rate
Current frame rates are 25, 50 and 60 Hz. This has been driven historically by the TV broadcast market. The main driver for increased frame rate comes from the console and PC gaming market where the HD content is being created on the fly. The benefit of moving from 60Hz to 120Hz frame rate whilst increasing screen resolution and colour depth has a direct impact on game play. Increasing frame rate allows the game player to drive faster without loosing frames or scene quality. New processor architectures such as the IBM's Cell are now fast enough to perform the required geometry and rendering calculations required to refresh the scenery at 120Hz. This should evolve as a standard feature as the developer community authors the required content to showcase the new levels of detail possible.

2.3. Colour Depth.
Improvements in display technology combined with the constant demand for improving the end-user experience has driven the requirement to increase the number of colours displayed. 24 bit colour allows 8 bits to render the individual RGB components on an LCD panel. By increasing the number of colours to 36 or 48 bits there are now 12 or 16 bits available to render individual RGB components. This enables a dramatic increase in the quality level achieved for many typical movie or game scenes. Using 12 bits to display a clear blue sky allows a more realistic picture to be rendered, with over 2000 levels of blue available. The same scene rendered with 8 bits of blue allows only 256 blue levels which will cause colour banding. Visually the eye can detect the different shades of blue. With 36 or 48 bit colour depth the scene appears as a continuous range of blue which is much more pleasing to the eye. This greater colour depth also has a significant impact on the contrast ratio. Hollywood is already using 36bit colour and providing support for this in consumer electronics equipment allows this to be experienced in the home.

2.4. Security & Compression.
High Definition content is stored and broadcast in compressed format and decompressed by the DVD player or STB. When the outputs from these devices were Composite, S Video or SCART there weren't many concerns about security because there was no access externally to the native digital content that could be used for illegal duplication. The fact that the connection between the DVD, STB and HDTV is now digital raises security concerns as this digital content is available externally. This led the industry to introduce content protection for digital content, and movies are now encrypted using the HDCP copy protection scheme.

However, the second piece of the puzzle in content protection is that if the content is transmitted in compressed format, there is an increased risk of it being captured and decrypted off line for subsequent distribution. Compression makes life easier for the pirate industry. Therefore Hollywood has a requirement that the digital content when exposed in this manner is in an uncompressed format. The sheer size of the content makes it impractical to store for offline decryption. For example a 2 hour 1080p movie would require 3 Terabits of exceptionally high-speed storage. The use of an uncompressed format clearly has a direct impact on the required data rate.