HDMI has been known as format that transfers high-def video with audio signal, that is also distance-limited and is driven by consumer electronics market. For many users arises one question regarding HDMI: how to    route and switch HDMI signals to devices such as monitors , and projectors that are installed far away from the sources. The answer to that question would be the HDBaseT technology.

If you don’t know HDBaseT, you may still be using it. When manufacturers like Atlona or Gefen tell customers that their HDMI extension devices can transmit signal over CAT5/6 cables for up to 330 ft. – most likely those devices are based on HDBaseT technology.

Valens Semiconductor is a developer of a chip-technology HDBaseT. With its HDBaseT chips you can transmit 100Base-T Ethernet, control signals, uncompressed HDMI video with audio, and power over CAT5 or CAT6 cables for roughly 330 feet and up to 10.2 Gbps. These chips take HDMI 1.4 with HDCP, Ethernet or other signals, process them as HDBaseT, transmit them over CAT5/6 cable, and turn them back into HDMI at the receiver side.

Major HDTV manufacturers wanted to find the way to overcome the standard HDMI distance limitations, and therefore founded HDBaseT alliance that was to promote the industry. Their intent was to have devices such as media servers, HDTVs, and Blu-ray players with built-in Valens chips, that can transmit HDMI signal over long distances. As of today, there is no commercially available HDBaseT at the market. Though that didn’t stop manufacturers that make routers and switchers from using the technology and doing for the AV installers something that today’s sources and displays cannot do- use HDBaseT technology in their solutions.

Atlona Technologies recently added to its product line two HDBaseT matrix switchers. Their marketing director Chris Bundy says:” We see the technology being adopted much more in the commercial space than in homes. We’re working on a digital signage project in Las Vegas using HDBaseT. If you think about digital signage, people these days don’t just want to see content, they want to interact with it. And the fact that you can take that much data and control, as well as HD video and audio, down a single Cat-5 cable is perfect for things like kiosks and touchscreens.”

Manufacturers, who adopted HDBaseT tell similar story. After Valens chipsets came out, and manufacturers tested them, they put away their developments of technology for transmitting HDMI for long distances. AMX’s chief technology officer Robert Noble says that Valens have really hit a sweet spot. “When you are moving into a buildings that already have a network cabling infrastructure, HDBaseT makes a lot of sense,”-he says.

Dan Jackson from Crestron says: “They make the wire itself better. There is a lot of stuff with HDMI, like EDID and HDCP, that they don’t touch. As a manufacturer we still need to manage those pieces, because 75 percent of the problems with HDMI are due to incompatibilities between equipment. But Valens has solved the problem of getting a signal a long distance when there’s no HDMI cable that can do that in a good way.”

You can purchase Atlona AT-PRO2HD88M HDBaseT 8×8 HDMI Matrix switch here, or Atlona AT-PRO2HD1616M HDBaseT 16×16 HDMI Matrix Switch here.