IGRS and Metalink Collaborate to Provide Next-Generation Wireless HDTV Decoder Platform for Major TV Vendors
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IGRS, With Member Companies Comprising Over 80% of China's TV Market, Selects Metalink's WLANPlus(TM) 802.11n Chipset for its HDTV Decoder Platform
BEIJING and YAKUM, Israel, July 9 -- IGRS, the Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing working group,and Metalink Ltd. (NASDAQ: MTLK), a provider of high-performance wireless and wireline broadband communication silicon solutions, today announced that they are working together to provide an advanced High Definition (HD) TV Decoder Platform for wireless home networks. The platform will be used by all TV manufacturers who are members of IGRS, which together account for more than 84% of all televisions sold in China.
IGRS was established in 2003 by five of China's leading computer and Consumer Electronics companies - Lenovo, TCL, Konka, Hisense, and Great Wall, with Lenovo acting as the chair company. In addition to the founding companies, key IGRS members include China Telecom, Huawei, Changhong, ZTE, Skyworth and others. Today, IGRS represents all the major industry players in China providing products to both domestic and worldwide markets.
The growth of China's consumer electronics (CE) industry is accelerating, driven both by the phenomenal growth rate of the Chinese market and with the rising success of Chinese brands worldwide. Consumers are looking for innovative and high-performance products to facilitate their home entertainment experience, and new enabling technologies such as Wi-Fi are gaining broad acceptance. Since the implementation of Wi-Fi solutions eases the transmission of HD video content throughout the home, CE vendors throughout the world, including China, have begun seeking out the most appropriate Wi-Fi enabling solutions. To support their needs, IGRS is now developing an advanced and reliable platform for the integration of Wi-Fi technology into their HDTV decoders.
After thorough investigation of next-generation Wi-Fi technologies, IGRS chose Metalink's 802.11n-compliant WLANPlus chipset as the basis for the wireless capabilities of its new platform. It will be designed to provide TV manufacturers with a robust and easy-to-integrate total solution for the delivery and display of HD-quality video content over home networks. As a best-of-breed offering, Metalink's 802.11n WLANPlus is designed specifically for wireless delivery of HD video streams, surpassing alternative solutions by an order of magnitude.
WLANPlus provides a robust foundation for the provision of wireless triple-play and entertainment networks with multiple simultaneous high-definition video streams and extended coverage. With a wide range of chipsets, including single-band, dual-band and simultaneous dual-band as well as a System on Chip (SoC) solution with an integrated network processor, WLANPlus offers the best match for various applications ranging from Residential Gateways, Access Points and Routers to PC cards, STBs, DMAs and wireless HDTVs.
"The deployment of IPTV in China is rapidly growing and Wi-Fi is the best-suited technology for such applications in this region," said Li Ming, Technology Director at IGRS. "Our evaluation has confirmed that As a result, there is an immediate and growing demand in China for Wi-Fi connectivity. We found Metalink's WLANPlus to be the best-performing, most robust and reliable Wi-Fi solution for enabling the wireless capabilities of our new HDTV Decoder Platform."
"We are proud that IGRS has selected our chipset as the wireless basis for its innovative HDTV Decoder Platform," added David Pereg, VP of Corporate Development at Metalink. "As a representative of the world's top-tier TV market leaders, IGRS sets the standards for all major TV vendors by selecting only the finest technologies for integration in its platform designs. Achieving a design win with this organization is therefore a major accomplishment, paving the way to worldwide acceptance of our best-of-breed 802.11n WLANPlus chipset in this market segment."
About IGRS
IGRS stands for Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing working group. It was formally established on July 17, 2003 by five of the largest computer and CE companies in China, Lenovo, TCL, Konka, Hisense and Great Wall. Lenovo acts as the chair company of the working group. Unlike other international standardization groups, only a government-authorized standard organization is allowed to define standard specifications in China.
In this case, the Ministry of Information Industry of China is the governing body of the IGRS working group. For more information visit http://igrs.org/en/index/index.asp
About Metalink
Metalink Ltd. (NASDAQ: MTLK) is a leading provider of high performance wireless and wireline broadband communication silicon solutions. Metalink's WLAN and DSL technologies are designed to enable true broadband connectivity in every home, and its products revolutionize the broadband experience by facilitating the convergence of telecommunication, networking and entertainment.
Metalink's WLANPlus(TM) is a high-throughput, 802.11n-draft-compliant wireless LAN technology optimized for the networked home entertainment environment. Featuring advanced MIMO technology and full support of QoS, and operating in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, WLANPlus enables multi-room networking of multiple high-definition video streams. In addition, Metalink offers a broad range of symmetric DSL and VDSL products used by operators as a cost-effective network upgrade to support triple-play services.
Headquartered in Yakum, Israel, the company has design centers in USA (Atlanta, GA) and Taiwan, and sales offices in USA (Atlanta, GA), South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan. Further information is available at www.MTLK.com
Contact:
Xiaolin Huang
Alliance Liaison Officer
IGRS information Industry Association
Vice Director General of Secretariat
Tel: +86-10-5873-2590
Fax: +86-10-5873-2590
huangxl@igrslab.com
Mor Abraham
Marketing Communications Manager
Metalink Ltd.
Tel: +972-9-9605406
Fax: +972-9-9605544
Amor@MTLK.com
Source: IGRS and Metalink
