White Papers
Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miracast™: Extending the Wi-Fi® experience to seamless video display - Consumer (2013)
The stunning growth in multimedia traffic, especially for video and gaming, is accompanied by a fundamental shift in how, when and where users access content. Now more than ever, users have a wide range of Wi-Fi® devices, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, TVs, and gaming consoles. Whether in the home or in a mobile environment, users interact with multiple Wi-Fi devices, some of which store content locally and some of which are better suited for displaying content. For example, users may want to stream a movie from the Internet to a tablet, but display it on a television in their living room.
Wi-Fi Alliance® has launched a new certification program, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miracast™ to make sharing of screens including graphical, video and audio content across Wi-Fi devices seamless. After initially pairing two Wi Fi devices, users can choose to stream content or mirror a display from one device (the source) to a second device (the display). Miracast allows users to establish a direct Wi-Fi connection between two devices, eliminating the need for an existing network. Miracast is an optional certification program for client devices capable of supporting video, such as TVs, over-the-top set-top boxes, projectors, smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
Miracast builds upon Wi-Fi to give users the freedom to display content on the device of their choice, while retaining the ease of use, interoperability among vendors, and security that all Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products share. Miracast supports a common H.264 codec to enable users to view the audio and video content they want on any Miracast-certified device they choose.
The list of devices certified for Miracast is available in the online database of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products on the Wi-Fi Alliance website (www.wi-fi.org).