IP STB chips support China's AVS

In-Stat sees a lot of potential in the global market for telecommunication TV subscribers over the next few years, with expectations of a 3x growth by the end of 2012 to approximately 71.6 million subscribers. It is estimated that 40 percent of the subscribers will be in the Asia.

High-end media gateways are seeing demand from service providers. This includes both the main living room and mid-to-low range devices in secondary rooms throughout the home. New features are being sought such as shared/networked digital video recorder capabilities that allow multiple users to store, time shift or access content from media servers or residential gateways for playback on STBs anywhere in the home. This is in addition to a more intuitive interface, and consistent look and feel on the STBs in the home.

The new Broadcom devices build upon the BCM7405 premium IPTV chip. The new devices in the product family are the BCM7205 and BCM7206, which provide HD solutions, while the BCM7466 is a standard-definition solution. All of the chips feature multiformat video support with an MPEG-4/VC-1/MPEG-2/AVS-compliant HD video decoder. The devices offer complementary, streamlined feature sets for mid-range and thin client applications, supporting single or multiroom TV delivery and distribution. With these chips, STB manufacturers can implement a common hardware and software architecture to improve time to market and reduce development costs.

- Greg Quirk
Digital Home DesignLine