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When Does it Pay More to Wire Less?
The selection criteria offered here should help you determine whether it is best to grab anantenna or a wire clipper to connect your digital signage system.
By Chuck Pheterson
Which is Best?
As a product manager, I manage and market wireless audio video extenders, as well as more traditionalextension products. Because of this, I’ve heard the same ‘quick’ question many times: “which is better,wired or wireless extension?” The only quick answer that has ever come to mind is “it depends,” butthat is not very useful.It is somewhat more helpful to answer as follows: “It depends upon the technical requirements of thetask-at-hand and the various logistical hurdles and challenges that must be dealt with. At the end of day,the solution that fully meets those needs at the least cost is the best.” Even this answer is lackingbecause it begs the following questions:
•
 
What applications are better suited for wireless versus wired extension?
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What challenges are better managed through wireless rather than wired solutions?
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How can wireless extension actually increase your return on investment?This white paper responds to these meaty questions with information garnered from real-worldexperiences rather than textbooks or marketing materials.As you might expect, both solutions are valid and each has a rightful place in your integration toolkit. Tobetter understand when to reach for a wireless rather than a wired solution, you will have to readthrough my
long
answer rather than my
short 
answer. Your effort, however, will be rewarded in termsof information that is both interesting and useful.Terms such as wired and wireless extension solutions are rather loose; they can mean different things todifferent people. To set bounds on the scope of this document, I will define these terms. Other validdefinitions may exist but they fall outside the scope of this discussion.
Wired Solutions Defined
Wired extension
, in this paper, will refer to analog UTP extenders, which are also commonly called Cat5extenders.Figure 1illustrates a typical UTP video extension solution:
 
 
Figure 1 – Typical UTP Extension Solution
This solution is characterized by video distribution over dedicated UTP cabling. As illustrated, a PC ormedia player source device generates video output in the form of analog RGBHV (VGA) signals. A Cat5transmitter is directly connected to the video source device via an HD15 video cable. The transmitter, inturn, converts the VGA-compliant signals into higher voltage signals for extended transmission over thefour twisted pairs of the UTP cabling. Typically, red, green, and blue video signals are each sent over aseparate twisted pair. The remaining twisted pair is used for ancillary signals, such as serial or audio. Atthe opposite end of the cable, Cat5 receivers convert the amplified signals back to industry-standardVGA signals, which are then output to an attached display via a 15-pin D connector.The value delivered by these wired products is three-fold.
Video extension
allows displays to be installedin public locations while PCs are securely housed and maintained.
Video splitting
allows a single videosignal to be displayed on multiple display devices and conversion to CAT-5 greatly reduces the cost overconventional 6-wire coax distribution systems. In terms of reduced cost of PC hardware andmaintenance, these extenders provide a very real return on investment.These products offer a range of model-dependent features, such as transmitter daisy-chaining, receiverdaisy-chaining (as shown), audio extension, RS232 serial extension, skew compensation, brightness andsharpness settings, and dual-head receivers.
 
For the sake of brevity, wired products that fall outside the scope of this discussion include digital videoextenders (which exceed the price range of analog Cat5 extenders) that extend HDMI or DVI-D overdedicated UTP cable or fiber, IPTV solutions (which require pre-compression of video content), coaxialvideo-over-RF solutions (require costly head-end systems), and real-time video-over-IP encodingsystems (which are similar to the wireless solutions discussed in this paper except that they transmitdata over wired Ethernet rather than wireless Ethernet). Discussions of these topics are reserved forfuture white papers.
Wireless Solutions Defined
Wireless extension
, in this paper, will refer to wireless multipoint extenders.Figure 2illustrates a typicalwireless video extension solution:
Figure 2 - Typical Wireless Extension Solution
These solutions are characterized by video distribution over industry-standard wireless Ethernet radios.As illustrated, a PC or other source device generates video output in the form of RGBHV, component,DVI-D, or HDMI signals. A wireless transmitter is directly connected to the video source device via anative video cable. The transmitter converts and encodes the video signals into digital data in real time.The data may also be encrypted for security and then encapsulated within IP packets for multicasttransmission to wireless receivers. The receivers convert the wireless LAN data back into industry-standard video signals, which are then output to an attached display via standard format A/V cables.Because the media is converted to common digital format for transmission, each receiver can convertthe video as needed for output on any form of display: HDMI, DVI-D, RGBHV, or component.Various distances are supported. When using standard omni-directional antennas, receivers can bespread out around the transmitter within a 300-foot (100m) radius. With directional antennas,communication can be established up to 1000 feet (330m). For wireless transmission over greaterdistances, such as many miles, external Ethernet bridges may be used.
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