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Frontier Silicon internet radio receiver platform achieves Pandora certification

Certification of Frontier Silicon’s Venice 6.2 module with companion IR2.0 software allows home audio systems manufacturers to provide  listeners with versatile low cost audio products that connect to Pandora, the popular personalized internet radio service

London, 14th July 2009: Frontier Silicon, the leading supplier of connected audio technology, has announced that its internet radio receiver platform technology has achieved certification from Pandora, the leading personal internet radio service in the USA. The significance of this development is that manufacturers of home audio systems can now bring Pandora to their connected receivers, allowing listeners free access to personal radio in a simple to use consumer friendly user interface.

The cost-optimized Venice 6.2 module and accompanying IR2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) offer a complete hardware and software package for consumer electronics manufacturers looking to deliver products enabling multiple content streams, internet radio, network audio and premium music services. In addition, the Venice 6.2 module provides FM and Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) radio options.  A fully-qualified low cost home audio reference platform, Jupiter 6.2, provides manufactures with a complete turn-key internet radio reference design featuring LCD graphic display supporting Frontier Silicon’s enhanced user interface.

Commenting on the development, Jessica Steel, SVP of Business Development at Pandora stated, “Pandora is committed to providing listeners our personalized internet radio service on a wide range of consumer electronics devices. As a supplier of receiver technology to in home connected digital audio manufacturers, Frontier Silicon is a welcome partner in that effort”.

Anthony Sethill, CEO of Frontier Silicon, added, “We are delighted to receive certification and to be able to offer our customers the Pandora service. Certification of our internet radio platform enables customers wishing to use the Venice 6.2 module to certify their products with minimal time-to-market and cost.”  He continues, “Several recent surveys have pointed to internet radio listening growing, and Pandora accounts for a significant proportion of US online listening. The fact that our hardware and software technology platform is now certified for Pandora opens the door for manufacturers to add this feature and consequently for even more listeners to access the service.”

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Editor's notes

About the Venice 6.2 module and IR2.0 software

The Venice 6.2 module provides complete hardware functionality for networked audio solutions, including built-in IEEE 802.11b/g wireless LAN functionality, removing the need for a separate wireless module. Venice 6.2 features Frontier’s own Chorus 2 baseband system-on-chip (SoC), integrating a multi-tasking, multi-threading META™ processor, which has been designed to address DAB and networked audio applications.

Frontier Silicon’s IR2.0 is a comprehensive software stack for internet radio, enabling network connectivity – either wired via Ethernet or wireless using IEEE 802.11b/g. The software also provides audio decoding in MP3, WMA, AAC and Real formats, an advanced user interface for control and content browsing, and a system management function that includes network discovery and system configuration. The user interface can be further customized for the OEM or ODM, in order to provide a unique appearance and to enhance the user experience.

About Frontier Silicon

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About Pandora

Pandora (www.pandora.com) is a free, personalized Internet radio service, available anytime and anywhere on the PC, in the home and on mobile devices, including the Apple iPhone.

Pandora is based on the Music Genome Project, which began in 2000 and is the most thorough analysis of popular music ever undertaken. Each song in this massive collection, which includes Pop, Rock, Jazz, Electronica, Hip Hop, Country, Blues, R&B, Latin and Classical, is analyzed by one of more than 50 trained musicians, and assessed against up to 400 distinct musical attributes (encompassing melody, harmony, rhythm, etc.) to capture its unique musical identity. Pandora uses this information to build playlists based on musical similarity.

By simply entering a favourite song or artist, a listener is instantly launched into a personalized listening experience, full of new discovery as Pandora explores their favourite part of the music universe. Listeners can create up to 100 of these personal radio stations and refine them by providing feedback via the Pandora radio tuner. Additionally, listeners can create profiles, search for other listeners in the Pandora community who have similar musical tastes, and find stations built by other listeners, using artist and song names as well as genre and mood search terms.

The music analyst team works daily to keep the Music Genome Project updated with the latest releases, emerging artists, and an ever-deepening collection of catalogue titles. Today, Pandora has a growing user base of more than 18 million registered listeners and national advertisers such as HP, Microsoft, Toyota, AT&T, Procter and Gamble, and Nike.