Product category: Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductors)
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 8 May 2002
Philips and Ucentric
in entertaining alliance
Philips and Ucentric Systems are to work together to develop products and applications for digital home entertainment
Ucentric's media distribution software platform and suite of digital entertainment applications will be combined with Philips' Nexperia home entertainment engine (HEE) system-on-chip solutions. With this solution, the alliance will enable service providers to leverage a highly cost-effective set-top box design to generate new revenue streams from distributing digital entertainment services on-demand and throughout the home.
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According to Cahners In-Stat Group/MDR, worldwide unit shipments of cable set-top boxes are forecasted to rise from 18 million in 2000 to over 25 million in 2005.
Consumer demand for digital entertainment services on devices throughout the home is on the rise as well.
For example, a September 2001 NextResearch survey of personal video recorder (PVR) owners indicates that more than 60% want that same functionality on every TV in their home.
At the same time, the technology necessary to deliver these "whole-home" applications is now available at price points that make distributed digital home entertainment possible and practical for service providers and consumers alike.
Trends like these set the stage for using the set-top box as the hub of all digital entertainment distribution for the home.
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For service providers, a tremendous opportunity exists to penetrate households further and maximise revenue by providing additional content and services.
Philips' HEE based on the Nexperia architecture, is a viable and cost-effective silicon system solution, ideal for service provider deployments of next-generation set-top boxes.
The companies will work to port Ucentric's innovative software, which features a scalable client/server architecture and a suite of digital home entertainment applications, onto Philips' Nexperia HEE pnx8525, the PVR silicon solution from the HEE family designed for use in advanced set-top boxes, digital consumer systems and networked applications.
The joint design enables a single set-top box to store and distribute digital entertainment content and services to multiple television sets, stereos and computers throughout the home.
In addition to delivering existing digital TV services, the joint solution includes Ucentric's suite of applications, such as multi-TV PVR, a multispeaker digital jukebox and wired and wireless shared Internet access.
This collaboration between Philips and Ucentric presents an affordable digital home entertainment solution that also provides efficiencies in time to market.
"Ucentric focuses on offering cable service providers cost-effective software solutions for delivering on-demand entertainment services to their subscribers", said Sergio Parise, Vice President of Engineering, Ucentric.
"That's why it's important for us to work with innovative silicon suppliers and port our software to the right platforms, such as Philips' Nexperia HEE, for our cable service provider partners".
"Together we are addressing the increasing demand for networked applications in the home environment.
Philips, with Ucentric's software, can offer service providers the ability to run networked applications on a real consumer product and thus, the opportunity to generate new revenue streams", said Mark Samuel, Set-top Box Marketing Director, the semiconductor division of Philips.
"The media distribution software platform based on the Nexperia HEE will revolutionise the connected home by enabling affordable distribution of audio, video and data throughout the house".
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