Texas Instruments will demonstrate a converged platform running on a single digital signal processor and targeting multiple end equipments including video telephony, internet protocol set-top boxes (IPSTB), media centers and portable multimedia players.
The event will take place at the International Broadcasters Conference (IBC) in Amsterdam, September 8 – 12, 2006.
Converging different applications into one product requires additional silicon even though much of the technology and protocols are shared. Leveraging TI’s digital video software development kit based on DaVinci technology enables developers to extend the functionality of existing hardware designs to integrate entirely new applications without adding to the bill of materials.
TI has extended application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow converged functionality by offering access into the framework to enable, for example, an existing set-top box application to provide video telephony functionality without requiring another processor. As a result, other than the addition of a camera and microphone, designing a converged internet protocol television (IPTV) set-top box with video telephony functionality becomes a matter of introducing new software.
The use of extended APIs and frameworks shifts development towards a component-based approach. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are able to create a wide family of converged devices including IP-STBs coupled with video telephony, broadcast TV, video answering machines and home security systems that can then stream content to digital media adaptors and 3G handsets over IP networks and portable multimedia players.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of its converged development framework, TI collaborated with several industry leaders to create a platform based on a single DSP processor that provides IP-STB and video telephony functionality. TI’s digital media processors based on DaVinci technology provide the flexible hardware foundation capable of supporting multiple codecs such as MPEG-2, H.264, DivX and Windows Media Video (WMV). Software from ANT, provider of software and solutions for the IPTV, hybrid TV and consumer electronics industries, enables interactive content applications that control everything from video-on-demand (VoD) interfaces to dynamic news, information and communication applications. RADVISION supplied its Multimedia Terminal Framework, including best-of-class, fully-interoperable session initiation protocol (SIP) stack and call control management. To further showcase the convergence of video telephony and set-top box functionality using DaVinci technology, TI has also collaborated with Ittiam, a technology company specializing in digital media applications.