Frontier Silicon brings the world’s first colour touch digital radio platform to market
Frontier Silicon’s touch radio platform is at the heart of future home audio products enabling manufacturers to produce cost effective devices with highly intuitive user interfaces the likes of which are only seen on handheld MP3 players today
London, 24th August 2009: Frontier Silicon, the leading supplier of connected audio technology, has announced that its Venice 8 module together with colour touch screen interface is enabling the “IKON” radio announced by Revo Technologies Ltd today. IKON, which is expected to be on sale in time for Christmas 2009, takes radio to a new level of usability. It is the first to feature a full colour touch screen interface supporting advanced multimedia capabilities, providing consumers with an all-in-one device which is able to receive radio programs wirelessly via the internet, DAB, FM, Last.fm as well as playing their music collection via a home network and docked iPOD.
Anthony Sethill, CEO of Frontier Silicon, commented, “Touch user interfaces on handheld devices have proven to be immensely popular with consumers. Frontier Silicon is now able to bring this experience to the home audio market triggering manufacturers to produce highly innovative cost effective connected audio products.”
IKON broke cover for the first time today in an official Revo press launch. David Baxter, managing director of Revo Technologies Ltd., commented, "Frontier Silicon's new Venice 8 module is a massive step forward for digital radio devices, allowing the combination of a colour touch-screen interface with multi-format radio capabilities and premium online music services such as Last.fm. Revo are proud to have been a lead manufacturer for this exciting new platform, and are delighted that our IKON touch-radio will be the first product to showcase its many and varied next-generation features."
The Venice 8 FS2028 module provides manufacturers with a fully customisable 320 x 240 colour touch UI (user interface) providing seamless access to a vast range of audio visual content:
- Internet radio
- Home network streaming
- Premium audio streaming services from Last.fm and Pandora
- WorldDMB profile 1 DAB/ DAB+/ DMB-Radio
- FM-RDS
- USB music player
Several hardware and software configurations are available, for Wi-Fi and Ethernet networks, DAB Band 3, L-BAND and FM-RDS reception. Frontier Silicon is also working with radio broadcasters around the world to deliver WorldDMB Profile 2 advance DAB features such as Slideshow and the MPEG-4 BIFS specification to further enhance digital radio to become a rich audio visual experience.
The Venice 8 module is also available in a reference platform, Jupiter 8, with IR 3.0 software which is designed to operate seamlessly with the rest of the digital audio world. In addition to being capable of addressing the various digital radio standards, suitable end-products based on this platform should be able to obtain certification for various other industry standards such as CE/FCC approval, iPod and iPhone certification, wireless, DLNA and DRM certification.
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About Revo Technologies Ltd.
Revo Technologies Ltd is a privately owned designer and manufacturer of high quality digital audio products for the DAB, DAB+ and internet radio platforms, as well as for Apple’s iPod and iPhone devices.
REVO’s headquarters and product design group are located in custom-built premises in the historic market town of Lanark in west central Scotland.
REVO are committed to utilising the best of available technologies, materials and components. REVO radios are designed exclusively in the UK and assembled in Asia by specialist manufacturing partners to ensure the best possible quality and reliability.
The REVO name first came to prominence in 2005 when the company’s first product, the pioneering Revo In-Car DAB Digital Radio Adaptor, was picked-up by high street retailers Dixons and Halfords. It later went on to win ‘Car Accessory of the Year’ from Auto Express magazine and was famously dubbed “DAB for the iPod generation.”
REVO has enjoyed further critical and sales success, from the iF and Red Dot Product Design Award winning Pico portable radio, to the ground-breaking BLIK RadioStation – the world’s first combined DAB and internet radio, and the first DAB radio to include coverage of the new DAB+ digital radio standard.
REVO products are sold in 25 countries worldwide.
IKON will have a suggested retail price of £279.95 and full details can be found on the Revo website (www.revo.co.uk).
