5/3/2008

A device developed at Bangor University is set to revolutionise home entertainment by delivering high speed HD films and television, high-power computer games and home video- conferencing facilities.

The new device will drastically increase the amount of data that can be transmitted - comparable to downloading 15 films a minute. It has the capacity to bring together currently separate networks and will lead to the networking of more domestic appliances.

The device, which could cost the consumer no more than current broadband prices, could begin to transform the way we use communications in our homes, making any networked appliance accessible from any location.

Dr Jianming Tang at and his team at Bangor University School of Electronic Engineering, are at the heart of a major research project to bring high-speed networks for all types of home and office environments. Dr Tang has just been awarded the Royal Society Brian Mercer Feasibility Prize as part of the Royal Society's 'fromlabstoriches' event.

"The new larger and faster capacity networks would revolutionise home entertainment delivering high speed HD films and television, high-power computer games and home video- conferencing facilities. This will make remote working far easier and could have many other applications such as supporting older people in their homes, enabling applications such as tele-medicine to flourish," explains Dr Tang.

"We may wonder how we will use a far greater capacity of connectivity, much as we wonder how we might use any new technology, but applications develop through use; as we have seen with the internet and telecoms technology."

Bangor University has been awarded funding of nearing one million Euros for a three year European Union funded project called ALPHA. The research will incorporate the newly invented device, which introduces widely adopted wireless techniques into the optical domain to address the challenges of building the next generation of high-speed home networks. This new device and technique dramatically increases the speed at which information can be transmitted without replacing existing cabling. These networks can then be extended to provide access to different devices within the home.

"The Alpha project will further consolidate Bangor's world leading position in optical telecommunication research," added Dr Janming Tang.

One of the major tasks for this initial project is to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of the project.