HAVA-A Significant Advance in Wireless Video Streaming and Integrating Place and Time Shifting Technologies
HAVA enables streaming of video content in MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 format from any video source to multiple PCs in a home or business, totally wirelessly. Content can be viewed in full screen - DVD quality video on multiple PCs simultaneously. It also allows content to be viewed remotely on an Internet connected PC. Users can control all the functions of the video source such as a TV or TiVo from their PCs. Moreover, HAVA allows TV content on the PC to be stored, recorded and burnt onto DVDs and enables the PC to operate as a Personal Video Recorder with pause, fast forward and rewind functions. Also, Windows XP Media Center Edition PC (MCE) users can use HAVA as a wireless tuner to add full multimedia capabilities to their PCs.
Monsoon Multimedia Inc, a leading provider of digital video technologies, products and services today announced availability of its HAVA - the next generation wireless video streaming, place and time shifting product. HAVA will be available in July, 2006, through Monsoon's e-tailing division at www.snappymultimedia.com.
Monsoon licenses HAVA's reference designs and software to large OEMs. HAVA is available in sample quantities and is currently being evaluated by major OEMs. HAVA will appear on retail shelves by August 2006, marketed under well known brands.
By connecting HAVA to any TV source such as Cable, Satellite, DVD, TiVo or a Camcorder and by loading the bundled software application onto the PC, users can stream TV programming in MPEG-2 format over the home network or in MPEG-4 format over the Internet. HAVA streams video wirelessly-without requiring a wired connection to the Router. Competitive products require messy wiring or expensive Powerline Ethernet Adapters to connect the router/access point to the video streaming device. HAVA incorporates VBooster, a sophisticated wireless video streaming software technology developed by Monsoon and an 802.11 a/g wireless card to accomplish DVD quality wireless video streaming. VBooster automatically adjusts encoder parameters based on dynamic calculation of the available wireless bandwidth to ensure smooth multicast delivery of the video stream to all the clients on the network.
Users can continue to use their wireless network for services such as web browsing, email, chats, printing and file transfer while watching high quality video wirelessly. HAVA can also be used as an independent Access Point - in all cases video is streamed directly to PC clients.
HAVA streams video at an average of 8Mbps directly to PCs in MPEG-2 D1, full screen at 720 x 480 pixels. This gives the user broadcast quality video on the PC screen. Competitive products stop at a maximum of 4Mbps streaming, with the leading manufacturer today delivering only 1.5Mbps in SIF 320x240 pixels. These products deliver less than broadcast quality video and the video is often unstable. In the remote viewing mode HAVA can display video on an Internet connected PC at uplink data rates as low as 128kbps.
HAVA can operate as a wireless tuner card for users (who currently do not have a tuner card) of Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE), PCs to add full multimedia capabilities to the PC.
Through the use of the MCE or HAVA's bundled application, HAVA enables TiVo-like functionality on the PC. Users can record, store, pause, rewind and fast forward the stored video. HAVA takes full advantage of the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) provided with MCE (or in case of HAVA's bundled application, Titan TV Web Based EPG service) to schedule recording of the programs for viewing at a later time. None of HAVA's competitors offer this feature.
HAVA enables burning of video content onto DVDs. Because HAVA follows Microsoft's Digital Right Management (MSDRM) rules for analog video, protected content cannot be duplicated on a DVD. Moreover, Monsoon is considering deployment of DTCP-IP in the remote viewing mode. This allows support of a multitude of DRM schemes and the ability to handle conditional access schemes such as S/M card in North America, DVB descrambling for Europe and ARIB support in Japan.
HAVA features an array of input connectors for the diverse number of old and new Set Top boxes, DVDs, Cable TVs, TiVo and Camcorders on the market today. Each input comes with a corresponding pass through connector, eliminating the use of splitters when connecting HAVA to home video equipment. Inclusion of a Component Input makes HAVA "HD Ready"Â.
Colin Stiles, executive vice president of marketing at Monsoon, said "HAVA is a historic product in that it moves the concept of place and time shifting up many levels. Users can now watch and control their TV programming anywhere, anytime and also record, pause, rewind, fast forward and burn to DVDs under DRM rules. HAVA differentiates itself from competitive products by being wireless and providing DVD quality video on the PC screens. We will soon introduce software that enables viewing content on Windows Mobile phones possible."Â He added,"Â Compared with HAVA's leading competitors, HAVA's net price is less because of the hidden costs of purchasing Powerline Ethernet Adapters ($100) to connect their unit to an Access Point/Router and additional software applications - these come for free bundled with bundled with HAVA. Further, HAVA has significantly more features than our competitors." -http://www.monsoonmultimedia.com
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