First devices for Airplay alternative Miracast certified by Wi-Fi Alliance

In a press release today, the W-iFi Alliance announced its Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miracast certification program. The program will certify devices for the new standard, which hopes to provide an industry-wide alternative to Apple’s Airplay.

Miracast aims to provide users with an easy-to-use way to share images, video and audio between laptops, phones, tablets, televisions and more. Miracast builds on a previous technology, Wi-Fi Direct, which allows these devices to communicate without the need for a Wi-Fi network. So far, the biggest companies on board with the standard are Intel and Samsung, though many vendors are joining up. NVIDIA, for example, plans to support Miracast in its Tegra 3 chips.
The phones already certified are Samsung’s Galaxy S3 and the LG Optimus G. Samsung’s Echo-P Series televisions, which are not yet on the market, are certified as well. Wireless cards and adapters from Intel, Broadcom, Marvell, MediaTek, Ralink and Realtek form certifications test suite, which other devices will be tested against to ensure interoperability.
Interoperability is a big word for Miracast, as it ensures that, for example, Samsung televisions won’t only work with Samsung Phones. Miracast’s aim is it to ensure that all devices work with one another, regardless of vendor.
Miracast supports HDCP copy protection, hopefully ensuring better adoption by making copyright owners less likely to block content from being streamed. The standard utilizes 802.11n on both the 2.4GHz and 5Ghz wavelengths and supports WPA2 security.
In addition to the previously mentioned certified devices, two more Samsung phones use Miracast. The Galaxy Note 10.1 and the Galaxy Note 2 both include Allshare Cast, which is based on Miracast. The Wi-Fi alliance doesn’t expect adoption of its standard to stop there, saying more devices will support Miracast in the tail end of 2012 and into 2013.
Does a non-Apple alternative to Airplay appeal to you?

SOURCES Ars Technica

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