Wi-Fi TimeSync

The internet of things Is ever changing and extremely fascinating.  Being able to stream video in our instantly connected lifestyles is simply a way of life these days.  When multiple things need to communicate with one another, the simple solution is to use Wi-Fi, seeing as how it exists in most homes anyways.

When WiFi began, timing didn’t matter so much.  Packets were sent a received, and timing didn’t effect when the image was seen.  However, times have quickly changed, and when you have multiple speakers connected via Wi-Fi, playing audio from a streaming video source, timing is everything.  I am sure we have all experienced the audio and video being out of sync at least once, it is not fun.

Even if you have speakers in multiple rooms playing from a single source, connected via Wi-Fi, hearing that they are out of sync could drive someone bonkers.

The Wi-Fi Alliance says it has a way to fix this timing issue. On Thursday at CES, the industry group announced Wi-Fi Certified TimeSync, a specification for precise time synchronization among Wi-Fi devices. It’s expected to be available in the middle of this year.

But TimeSync won’t automatically synchronize the clocks on every device that’s certified. Instead, it will be a common tool vendors and industry groups can use to make devices synchronize, said Kevin Robinson, the Alliance’s vice president of marketing. If several vendors want to make their Wi-Fi gear work together on a timing-dependent application, they can use TimeSync to do it.

I kind of like where this is going.  Wireless surround sound systems using TimeSync could be in the not too distant future.