At NAB, I discovered a demo of Wi-Wi STAMP, a wi-fi time synchronization protocol that got here out of Japan’s NICT.
Wi-Wi stands for Wi-fi 2Way interferometry, and it makes use of the 900 MHz band for picosecond-level time sync, and mm-level distance accuracy, in a tiny field, presently the scale of a smartphone.
The system remains to be in growth, however present prototypes have 20ps of part synchronization jitter, and time synchronization all the way down to 30ns. The subsequent era could have time all the way down to 5ns in real-world use.
I recorded a video on the tech with Nobu (one among Wi-Wi STAMP’s co-founders) at Meinberg’s sales space:
I witnessed two sensible purposes:
Meinberg used the units for wi-fi black burst time synchronization for 2 distant video cameras.Nobu and Ahmad demonstrated the mm-level place accuracy with a set of three Wi-Wi models, and a transmitter in a cup, taking part in the shell recreation (pictured beneath).
The graph on the laptop computer (to the left within the image above) confirmed the X-Y place of the cup with the Wi-Wi transmitter, updating 20 occasions per second. The wi-fi vary of the present system appears to be between 0.2-5 km, relying on the RF energy.
Utilizing the 900 MHz band (920 MHz in North America), sign penetration might be significantly better than GNSS indoors, or in areas the place operating wires could also be prohibitively costly. For another sensible purposes, try this 2024 presentation.
There was rather a lot to see at NAB this 12 months, and my Dad and I coated it on the Geerling Engineering channel: The printed trade is altering in 2026.
However me being the time-nut I’m, I used to be scanning the ground for timing-related tech, and now it is ubiquitous with the adoption of SMPTE 2110 and protocols like Ravenna, Livewire, and AES67 all over the place in broadcast tech.
It is even ubiquitous sufficient Ubiquiti themselves are moving into the sport; they’d a full sales space, although I did not get hands-on with their new PTP-aware Enterprise AV switches.
However for those who’re serious about nanosecond-level wi-fi time sync, or wish to study why commodity WiFi setups cannot help it, watch the video above!
Be aware: My journey to NAB 2026 was totally self-funded. I can work on these posts due to the help of readers such as you!
