Next Step In Wireless Installs?

Wireless multiroom audio, wireless data networking, and wireless home-automation control are facts of life for systems integrators. And the development of wireless multiroom-video distribution is well underway.So what’s left to go wireless?

Electricity!

Imagine what it will mean for the retrofit business. You could install amplified speakers in the wall or ceiling without calling in an electrician to connect them to power lines. Wireless in-wall touchscreens and keypads wouldn’t need a power-line connection. You wouldn’t even have to plug a wireless AV client into a wall outlet. And flat-screen TVs? Hang ‘em up like you would a picture frame.

CNN recently reported on wireless-electricity developments. One company, CNN said, is powering light bulbs by sending wireless electricity several feet from a power outlet. The company, WiTricity, converts electrical power into a magnetic field and sends it through the air at a specific frequency. In 2003, a company called Powercast used radio waves to send electricity 1.5 miles to light up a low-power LED. Powercast’s technology is already used in low-power applications in office buildings. Powercast temperature sensors, for example, regulate air conditioning systems.

Next? I see roof-top devices that collect all of the electromagnetic radiation flying around (and through) us to light up our homes. I have it under development.