NEC, DTS and 27M announce MHEG5 collaboration on EMMArchitecture2

NEC Electronics, a leading manufacturer of System-on-Chip (SoC) Solutions, Digital Television Software Ltd (DTS) and 27M Technologies have announced collaboration on providing MHEG-5 on NEC's EMMArchitecture2 (EMMA2) digital TV (DTV) silicon devices. The development will be in two phases. The first offering will be geared towards UK DTT set-top box (STB) and Integrated Digital TV (iDTV) designs and the second phase for the Personal Video Recorder (PVR) market. Manufacturers will be able to license the whole software stack based on 27M's DTV Platform Software and the MHEG-5 solution provided by DTS.

"NEC has been ideally placed to meet the rising demand for DTT next generation devices worldwide. A complete turnkey hardware and MHEG5 software solution will be made available to manufacturers by our collaboration with DTS and 27M. Our combined strengths should provide great benefit to our mutual customers on new UK DTT products." stated Nick Russell Digital AV marketing manager of NEC Electronics Europe. He added "DTV is now a fact of life and, with developments in the pay-TV PVR area, consumers will soon expect the benefits of PVR technology in the free-to-air market".

NEC offers a range of EMMA2 devices, which address different DTV consumer products and have ample processing power to handle the most demanding MHEG5 applications. EMMArchitecture2L (EMMA2L) is a low cost option targeted at converter boxes and iDTV receivers with a single digital tuner. EMMArchitecture2 (EMMA2) a dual tuner option is ideal for both PVR and iDTV designs where the user can view one channel and target a second channel to hard disk drive (HDD) or an external recording device e.g. an analog VCR. A further extension of the EMMA2 family allows PVR functionality both with HDD and DVD record based systems. To complement these devices in an interconnected TV system, NEC also provides a range of other devices including MPEG2 codecs, IEEE1394, USB2 and 3DYC.

"DTS has been instrumental in providing MHEG5 engines within UK DTT converter boxes and iDTVs through its parent companies, Strategy & Technology and Eldon Technology. The next important progression of this technology will be in PVRs and we are enabling our technology to address this market. Together with NEC's leadership in PVR SoC device market and taking into account 27M's expertise in PVRs, we believe our collaboration will provide innovative PVR solutions to our customers in the very near future." says DTS director David Cutts.

Jan Mårtensson VP Products & Technology at 27M elaborated "27M is a young company but our R&D team has been working with DTV technology since its inception and has built up a high level of competence already delivering tomorrows products. PVRs are our forte. We are obviously very excited to be part of this collaboration as 27M will be able to provide complete MHEG5 based STB and PVR turnkey time-to-market solutions to manufacturers."

About NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH

NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany, is a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of semiconductor products in Europe. Committed to meeting customers' cost, performance and time-to-market requirements, the company offers solutions ranging from standard products to system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, as well as customised products for next-generation designs. NEC Electronics also offers customers the benefit of state-of-the-art manufacturing locally in Europe, besides the global production of its parent company, NEC Corporation. For more information visit www.ee.nec.de.

For editorial information about NEC Electronics contact:

Oliver Lüttgen
NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH
Oberrather Straße 4
D-40472 Düsseldorf
Phone: +49 (0)211 6503469
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About Digital Television Software Ltd

Digital Television Software Ltd (DTS) is a joint venture of two of the UK's leading Digital TV companies, Eldon Technology Ltd and Strategy & Technology Ltd. DTS licences software solutions for manufacturers needing to incorporate the standard MHEG-5 technology into digital receivers. The DTS solution, which has been tried and tested over 4 years in the market, is now incorporated into over 750K DTT receivers in the UK and is one of the leading MHEG-5 implementation.

Contact details:

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Phone: +44 20 7336 7878
Visit our website www.s-and-t.com for more information.

About 27M Technologies

27M Technologies is a software and hardware design house based in Mjärdevi Science Park in Linköping, Sweden. 27M Technologies was founded by former employees from Nokia and have extensive experience gained from having delivered many successful products in the digital TV industry. The highly qualified staff is able to take on both hardware and software design contract work and projects ranging from specific modules to complete turnkey solutions such as a complete STB or iDTV platform. The company's core expertise is in the fields of DVB and DTV product design, embedded Linux kernel, device driver development and real time critical applications development in general.

For editorial information about 27M Technologies contact:

Jan Mårtensson
Vice President Products & Technology
Phone: +46 (0) 13 21 81 21
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www.27m.com