Those having trouble smoothly streaming 4K Ultra HD video to multiple devices in the home, office or on the go at the same time might have an inadequate or poorly performing Wi-Fi router.
Netgear introduced Thursday a possible solution in its speedy Nighthawk X10 AD7200 Smart Wi-Fi router (model R9000) that combines a beefy 1.7GHz quad core processor, AD7200 quad-stream Wave 2 Wi-Fi architecture and next-generation high-speed 802.11ad Wi-Fi technology in one low-profile device.
The router, which is available through e-commerce, CE and AV retailers now, rings in at a $499.99 suggested retail price, and is said to deliver blazing-fast combined wireless speeds at up to 7.2Gbps.
The latest MU-MIMO technology used by the router supports simultaneous streaming, while 160MHz doubles Wi-Fi speeds to mobile devices. Further, the router is equipped with four proprietary external Active Antennas that amplify the Wi-Fi signals to maximize range and throughput of the short-range AD system around the home or property.
Read more on the Netgear Nighthawk X10 AD7200 Smart Wi-Fi router after the jump:
Netgear said new 802.11ad Wi-Fi technology provides approximately one-tenth the latency of the former top-performing 802.11ac system, which is especially critical for video game play, and virtual reality or augmented reality applications.
AD Wi-Fi, which was previously known as WiGig, separates itself from the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands and operates on a 60 GHz band (equivalent to 60,000 MHz). This space is free and open, which helps it achieve speeds that are 50 times faster than Wi-Fi 802.11n.
In addition, the AD7200 quad stream Wave2 Wi-Fi system supports wireless speeds up to 4600+1733+800Mbps, Netgear said.
The Nighthawk X10 supports Plex Media Server with transcoding for smooth 4K streaming to both mobile and stationary video entertainment devices. In addition, the Nighthawk X10 is the first router to run Plex Media Server without the need for a connected computer.
Plex is able to take locally connected storage and organize movies, TV shows, music, video, and photo collections, to make it easy and quick to find specific content. This content can then be smoothly streamed over various devices from mobile phones to smart TVs anywhere and at any time.
Compared to storing video content on a PC, Netgear said the Plex server accessed via a Nighthawk X10 Smart Wi-Fi router is easy to set up and always on. In addition, Netgear will provide a free three-month Plex Pass subscription with the purchase of a Nighthawk X10.
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Netgear said the Nighthawk X10 is one of the first routers designed for the home market with a 10 Gigabit port, supporting a fiber connection. This enables very fast backup and streaming from Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices.
To assist with accessing add-on personal video collections, Nighthawk X10 includes two USB 3.0 ports. These can be used for backup and file transfer over Wi-Fi. Netgear is also providing additional storage options with the Nighthawk X10 by offering six months of free unlimited Amazon Drive backup for the off-site cloud copy of files.
Other features include: 512MB NAND flash memory and 1GB DDR3 SDRAM; explicit beamforming for 2.4 & 5GHz bands; seven 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet ports – one WAN and six LAN – dual Gigabit Ethernet port aggregation; 10G LAN SFP+ port connection for NAS applications; two USB 3.0 ports; IPv6 support (Internet Protocol Version 6); On/Off LED light switch; ReadyCLOUD secure USB access from anywhere; ReadySHARE Vault PC software for automatic backup to a USB hard drive connected to the router ; DLNA server to find and play media on TVs and game consoles; VPN support; enhanced parental controls; and Netgear genie home network manager with remote access to manage a network away from home.
By Greg Tarr
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