Chip receives digital video broadcast in cars

STMicroelectronics has announced it is providing the digital broadcasting chipset for Sirius Backseat TV service that delivers live TV directly to vehicles.

Sirius Backseat TV will be launched later this year in select 2008 model vehicles from Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge. Sirius Backseat TV, which offers consumers three channels of family TV programming, can be received via an in-vehicle satellite video receiver and two small roof-mounted antennas. The Sirius Backseat TV digital A/V signal is broadcasted over the same frequency spectrum allocation as Sirius radio.

The core of the in-vehicle satellite video receiver, which is manufactured by Delphi for Sirius, is based on three ST chips: the STA210 RF tuner IC, the STA240 channel, service and source decoder IC, and the STA264 advanced hierarchical demodulator chip, which extracts the video stream and performs error correction on the received signal.

"Sirius is a major player in the automotive entertainment field and its choice of ST's chips to provide the core of this new in-vehicle TV receiver is a significant endorsement of ST's digital broadcast expertise," said Ugo Carena, corporate VP and general manager of ST?s automotive product group.