Releases > 2004 >

World’s first integrated multimedia home theatre system is unveiled at Hong Kong Electronics Fair

Frontier Silicon and Orient Power show brand new concept – a home theatre system for DVD playback, digital TV (DVB-T) and digital radio (DAB), all in one

Hong Kong, 13th October 2004: Frontier Silicon and Orient Power will unveil a unique new digital multimedia concept at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair this week. The new product to be demonstrated at the fair is the first all in one home theatre system that provides both DVD playback as well as a combined receiver for digital terrestrial television (DVB-T) and digital radio (DAB). Based on the Logie FS5021 advanced single chip DVB-T/DAB decoder from Frontier Silicon, the new concept product is expected to start shipping for European consumption during the first quarter of 2005.

Frontier Silicon is the leading fabless manufacturer of semiconductors for digital radio/TV and consumer multimedia products, and Orient Power a leading global manufacturer and supplier of audio and video consumer electronics products, with manufacturing out of Hong Kong and China. Steven Pong, CEO of Orient Power, said about the new concept, "We are very excited about this new multimedia product that we have developed in partnership with Frontier Silicon. We have a lot of interest already from the major brand consumer electronics companies. "

Anthony Sethill, CEO of Frontier Silicon, added, "Orient Power has established itself as a major supplier of DAB digital radios using Frontier ICs. We are pleased to be able to build on our established relationship with the company in the digital broadcast arena by jointly developing a unique multifunctional home theatre system, which will be demonstrated on the Orient Power stand at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair this week."

The Logie chip is already enabling combined digital TV/radio receivers from companies such as Goodmans. The chip is a highly integrated system-on-chip receiver providing all the functions required for receiving DVB-T and DAB, and decoding the stream to output the final analogue video and audio source. It uses a super-threaded DSP/RISC processor with DVB-T decoder and MPEG decoder.

Orient Power’s speciality in home theatre DVD systems was therefore combined with this digital multimedia receiver enabled by Logie to create the unique new all in one product revealed this week. The new product will enable digital TV reception – such as Freeview in the UK – and full interactive software capability such as MHEG5 for digital teletext and EPG (electronic program guide). In addition, the new concept product provides now and next TV guides, DAB reception with full on-screen broadcast information, and fully featured DVD player.

Ends

Editor's notes: About Frontier Silicon

Frontier Silicon, winner of the PricewaterhouseCoopers hottest technology company of 2004 award, is at the forefront of the digital revolution with a range of semiconductor solutions for digital TV, digital radio and other emerging consumer multimedia products. As a fabless semiconductor business, Frontier Silicon’s core products include complete DAB modules, DVB-T solutions and the underlying system-on-chip (SoC) devices. Key customers for these products include consumer electronic, automotive entertainment and PDA/mobile phone manufacturers. In digital radio (DAB), the company’s chips are found in the world’s leading brands including Bush, Cambridge Audio, Goodmans, Grundig, Hitachi, Ministry of Sound, Philips, PURE Digital, Roberts Radio, Sharp, Sony and TEAC.