Broadcom Announces First Dual ISDB-T Chipset for Digital Terrestrial TV in Latin America

Press release:

Broadcom Announces First Dual ISDB-T Chipset for Digital Terrestrial TV in Latin America

Innovation Opens the Way for Hybrid TV Services in Brazil

SAO PAULO, July 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ABTA

News Highlights:

• Broadcom's Digital Terrestrial TV chipset offers a new level of integration to burgeoning ISDB-T markets in Latin America; DTT households in Latin America are expected to grow 400% by 2017*.
• Hybrid TV services offer linear and advanced TV content and services when interfaced with a range of Broadcom set-top box system-on-a-chip (SoC) platforms.

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today announced the BCM3472, the industry's first fully integrated 40nm Dual ISDB-T receiver chipset.  Addressing the growing popularity of digital TV in Latin America, Broadcom is driving the deployment of digital terrestrial TV (DTT) services in Brazil and a range of emerging markets around the world.  For more news from Broadcom, visit ourNewsroom.

The new chip can be combined with Broadcom set-top box SoCs to launch Hybrid TV — digital terrestrial broadcast combined with advanced pay TV services.  This enables operators to offer subscribers linear TV while adding new, advanced services like Digital Video Recorder (DVR) and Video on Demand (VoD). By supporting Dual ISDB-T Receivers, Broadcom's solution is ideal for Hybrid STB and DVR solutions where multiple tuners must be included in the platform. The BCM3472's 12mm x 12mm package enables device manufacturers to save space and cost over existing solutions.

Additional Product Features

• Integrates two receivers that include low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) with a tuner and demodulator on a single-chip that enables better cost and design efficiencies.
  • RF loop through, daisy chain and clock sharing that eliminates the need for multiple crystals in a multi-tuner design.
• Broadcom's BCM3471 40nm Single ISDB-T device features an LNA, tuner and demodulator on a single-chip.

Availability

Broadcom's BCM3472 and BCM3471 chips are currently sampling and will be shipping in mass production at the end of Q1 2013.

For ongoing Broadcom news visit our Newsroom, read our B-Connected Blog, or visit us on Facebook or Twitter. And to stay connected, subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Quotes

Sam Rosen, Senior Analyst, ABI Research:

"Latin American countries are currently in the early implementation of their transition to digital terrestrial platforms, withBrazil leading the region.  With this transition, we expect DTT households using the ISDB-T standard in Latin America to grow 400% between 2012 and 2017, to 17.5 million households.  Many operators will launch Hybrid TV services, which leverage DTT for live, linear broadcasts while using satellite or IP networks to deliver advanced services, including VoD."

Dan Marotta, Broadcom's Executive Vice President and General Manager, Broadband Communications Group:

"The BCM3472 supports the huge growth in pay TV households projected in Latin America in the next several years. Broadcom's ability to reach new levels of integration with the BCM3472 enables our customers to save space and cost, supporting the transition to Hybrid TV services.  Now operators can cost-effectively deploy Hybrid TV solutions supporting pay TV and other services while also supporting existing digital terrestrial broadcasts."

Contacts

Press Dana Brzozkiewicz Manager, Public Relations 949-926-6367 danabrz@broadcom.com

Investors Chris Zegarelli Senior Director, Investor Relations 949-926-7567 czegarel@broadcom.com

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments.  With the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and embedded software solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by Connecting everything®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.

Lenovo Launches Innovative Smart TV Across China

News release:

Lenovo Launches Innovative Smart TV Across China

World's First Smart TV with Android 4.0, New Qualcomm Processor
Demonstrates Lenovo's PC-Plus Strategy

May 8, 2012—Lenovo Group launched the K-series Lenovo Smart TV products for the China market at a press conference in Beijing today. With today's announcement, Lenovo is now offering products across all four screens -- personal computer, tablet, smart phone and smart TV -- that define the company's long-term "PC-Plus" strategy.
 

Lenovo believes that the PC industry has entered the PC-Plus era, characterized by the emergence of a variety of new devices. Smart TVs, tablets and smart phones all have the same computing, storage and network communication capabilities of a PC, offering a wide variety of features and apps based on the Internet. In the mean time, PC itself will also be continuously adapted and innovated.
 

"While we continue to strengthen our position in the PC industry, we are also further expanding into the field of Internet devices, with innovative smart phones and tablets, and today, smart TVs," said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo Group Chairman and CEO. "As a global leader in the PC industry, our customers look to us to provide new technologies, and as we drive further into the PC^­­-Plus era, we will continue to introduce new products worldwide. The PC-Plus era is a great opportunity for our customers and Lenovo intends to remain out in front, leading as always with exciting new products."
 

Liu Jun, Lenovo Senior Vice President and Mobile Internet Digital Home President said, “China's smart TV market will experience explosive growth in 2012, and Lenovo is poised to give customers in China the technology that they want. Today we are introducing a smart TV product that went through three generations of R&D, and many more times as much customer feedback. With our excellent products and rich content and apps, we want to give users an outstanding experience and make smart TV a new place for families to happily gather together.”
 

As the first television product to adopt the Android 4.0 OS, Lenovo Smart TV employs the powerful Qualcomm dual core 1.5GHz CPU. Supported by Lenovo’s R&D capabilities combining a “trinity" of software, hardware and cloud services, Lenovo Smart TV delivers three major innovations to the user experience.
 

• The first is a user-friendly interactive system, like the simple and intuitive “Sandwich” User Interface that integrates touch, voice, air mouse, gravity sensor, smart keyboard and traditional television remote control in a “Six in One” Smart Remote Controller.
   
• The second is high-quality video on demand. Lenovo and SMG’s BesTV established joint venture ISmartv to exclusively provide users with customized online HD video resources that already amounted to more than 300,000 hours of viewing.
   
• The third is a wide variety of applications based on an open platform. With its Le Store app developer community, Lenovo has already developed over 1,000 custom apps for its smart TV covering games, education, SNS, life service and many others.
   

Lenovo is releasing four Lenovo Smart TV K-series devices — the 55-inch screen K91 and K81 and the 42-inch screen K81 and K71 — priced from RMB14,999 to RMB6,499. In the future, Lenovo will release new product lines to satisfy the demand of various user segments.

Starting from May, Lenovo Smart TV is going on sale in Suning stores in nine cities—Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Through its close relationship with IT and appliance channel stores and its own strong PC channels, Lenovo will establish a wide variety of sales channels for its smart TV. These include national and regional appliance and 3C stores, self-operated Lenovo stores and online sales.
 

Lenovo established an improved integrated service system exclusively for its smart TV products. The company will provide customer service through online service channels, a service hotline and physical service stations. Customers are allowed to receive free servicing twice on their Lenovo Smart TV, which includes on-site assembly, tuning and demos.
 

Lenovo Group chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo Group senior vice president and Mobile Internet Digital Home president Liu Jun, Lenovo Group senior vice president and Lenovo China president Chen Xudong and other senior-level Lenovo management, Qualcomm senior vice president Luis Pineda, RTS and BesTV New Media Co. Ltd. vice chairman Zhang Dazhong, and other high-level Lenovo partners from Philips, LGD, Monotype, Sina and Game Loft all attended the press conference.

 

Attached: Partner stance on Lenovo Smart TV:

 

Qualcomm chairman and CEO Paul E. Jacobs

            Lenovo Smart TV is the first smart TV in the world to adopt the Snapdragon™ Xiaolong processor, as well as the first to run on Android 4.0 OS. This excellent smart TV product is an accomplishment resulting from an extraordinary partnership — it combines Lenovo's insights in personal computing and consumer electronics with Qualcomm's expertise in mobile, computing and other multimedia fields.

 

SINA Corporation president and CEO Chao Guowei

            Lenovo, a leader in China's IT industry, has leveraged the strengths of its product technology and major advantages over the course of many years in the PC field to develop and introduce its smart TV today. I believe that this will have a wide-reaching influence on the entire industry. Sina has developed the first TV-app - Sina Weibo TV - exclusively for Lenovo. This will allow users to discover and share their favorite content and interact with the TV programs they watch all without leaving their home. 

 

About Lenovo

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a $US21 billion personal technology company – and the second largest PC company in the world, serving customers in more than 160 countries. Dedicated to building exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile internet devices, Lenovo’s business is built on product innovation, a highly efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the Company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services. Its product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile internet devices, including tablets and smart phones. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina.  For more information, see www.lenovo.com.

Developers Are Working on Television Apps, but TV Industry Is Wary

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Saturday, April 28, 2012

Developers Are Working on Television Apps, but TV Industry Is Wary 

By AMY CHOZICK and NICK WINGFIELD

The same consumers who delight in navigating the iPad still click frustratingly through cable channels to find a basketball game. Their complaint: Why can’t television be more like a tablet?

The technology industry is trying to address that question for the millions of customers ready to embrace the next generation of viewing options. In the process it could transform the clunky cable interface, with its thousands of channels and a bricklike remote control, into a series of apps that pop up on the television screen.

While still in its early stages, the idea has taken off among tech-loving consumers, and companies are trying to satisfy them. Already, apps for Hulu Plus, Netflix and Wal-Mart’s Vudu streaming service, among others, are built into Internet-enabled televisions. Devices like Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the streaming video player Roku let viewers watch apps that mimic channels. New sets by Samsung and others come with built-in apps loaded with television shows, movies and sports.

Apple has a video player called Apple TV with apps to Netflix, Major League Baseball and other content. Many media executives predict Apple will ultimately enter the television market in a more aggressive way, with either a new set-top box or an Apple-made TV set. Both would rely on apps scattered across the screen as they are on the iPad. Apple declined to comment.

“I’ve told my bosses, ‘This is beachfront real estate. Buy in now,’ ” Lisa Hsia, executive vice president of digital media at NBCUniversal’s Bravo channel, said of developing TV apps.

A model built around TV apps, however, could let viewers use favorite apps on the screen on an á la carte basis, thus bypassing cable subscriptions and all the extraneous channels they don’t watch. And therein lies the tension that has the television industry delicately assessing how to balance the current system with an Internet-based future that some feel is inevitable.