Samsung, STMicroelectronics and Metalink Unveil Wireless High-Definition IPTV Set-Top Box at CeBIT
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SEOUL, Korea; GENEVA, Switzerland and YAKUM, Israel, March 19 - Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies; STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), the leader in set-top box chips; and Metalink Ltd. (NASDAQ: MTLK), a provider of high-performance wireless and wireline broadband communication silicon solutions, today announced their collaboration to launch a revolutionary set-top box, which supports high-definition (HD) TV quality based on 802.11n wireless IPTV standard, at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany, March 15-21, 2007. CeBIT is the world's largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments.
Samsung's SMT-H6155 is specifically designed for the delivery of HD IPTV over wireless LAN. It is equipped with an STi7109 chipset providing the HD video decoding technology from STMicroelectronics, and Metalink's 802.11n WLANPlus(TM) chipset enabling the wireless delivery of multiple HD video streams throughout the home.
"Our customers have shown great demand for high-definition multimedia content via IPTV and the ability to facilitate content using Wireless LAN," said HEE-WON PARK, Vice President of Samsung's STB Development Group. "We believe that Samsung's SMT-H6155, equipped with STMicroelectronics' decoder and Metalink's 802.11n chipsets, will satisfy our consumers as a top-of-the-line set-top box for HD IPTV. The SMT-H6155 will be a product that consumers can come to trust and believe in as it represents Samsung's highest standard for quality."
"Samsung is a global leader in set-top box products and a major customer of ST," commented Christos Lagomichos, Corporate Vice President, Home Entertainment Group General Manager at STMicroelectronics. "We are happy that our market leading HD decoder in cooperation with Metalink's WLANPlus allows us to provide Samsung with the most innovative and robust solution in the market today. This platform demonstrates the capability of ST's advanced decoders, such as the STi71xx family, which allows the set-top box to become a core multimedia appliance in the home network, for both operator and retail markets."
"We are proud to work together with set-top box global market leaders Samsung and STMicroelectronics," said Tzvika Shukhman, Metalink's chairman and CEO. "This cutting-edge product, embedding our WLANPlus technology, represents an important milestone in making 'service provider grade' HD video networking over wireless LAN a reality."
To see a live demonstration of the solution please visit Samsung booth, D60 at Hall 26.
Mike Arden, Principal Analyst, Broadband and Multimedia Research at ABI Research, noted: "STMicroelectronics holds the leading market share for STB decoders, and Samsung is the leading STB vendor in Asia-Pacific and second worldwide. Together, these companies will be in a strong position to capture market share in the IPTV STB market, which will grow from 4.7 million units shipped in 2006 to 41.2 million units shipped in 2011."
About Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2006 parent company sales of US$63.4 billion and net income of US$8.5 billion. Employing approximately 138,000 people in over 124 offices in 56 countries, the company consists of five main business units: Digital Media Business, LCD Business, Semiconductor Business, Telecommunication Network Business and Digital Appliance Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com
About STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics is a global leader in developing and delivering semiconductor solutions across the spectrum of microelectronics applications. An unrivalled combination of silicon and system expertise, manufacturing strength, Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio and strategic partners positions the Company at the forefront of System-on-Chip (SoC) technology and its products play a key role in enabling today's convergence markets. The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on Euronext Paris and on the Milan Stock Exchange. In 2006, the Company's net revenues were $9.85 billion and net earnings were $782 million. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com
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 subsidiaries in Atlanta (US), South Korea, and Japan as well as an office in China. Further information is available at www.metalinkbb.com
About Samsung's SMT-H6155
The SMT-H6155 is a hybrid set-top box that combines IP and DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial) reception capabilities. It fully supports the delivery of HD contents over the IP network, and enables various interactive functions like VoD and IP multi-casting.
The cutting-edge SMT-H6155 combines MPEG-4 AVC/H264/C1 capabilities on a single chipset produced using STMicroelectronics' SoC platform, and supports Wireless Digital Video home Networking using 802.11n.
About STMicroelectronics' STi7109
The STi7109 is a single-chip MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1 decoder that embeds all the major functions of a set-top box in a single device, including a high-performance CPU, video-decoding circuitry, a wide range of peripheral devices, advanced connectivity features and support for emerging security standards.
About Metalink's WLANPlus(TM)
The WLANPlus family consists of the company's MtW8170 baseband device and the MtW8150 radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC). A combination of features enables Metalink's WLANPlus family to deliver multiple HDTV streams to any location within a radius of 100 feet, while maintaining full QoS performance. Innovative packet-aggregation techniques boost media access control (MAC) efficiency with double the effective throughput of other solutions. The inclusion of 2x3 real Multiple-In Multiple-Out (real MIMO) technology further improves throughput and QoS, and the use of sophisticated channel-bonding and antenna-loading techniques in the 5 GHz frequency band provide critical additional video-distribution performance.
The WLANPlus chipset also includes a full implementation of an integrated lower and upper MAC, reducing dramatically the required processing power and memory allocation from the host application processor. This simplifies the integration with consumer electronics devices and reduces the total product cost. Additionally, Advanced Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) forward error-correction (FEC) coding significantly boosts coverage range and signal robustness as compared to previous approaches. The chipset also fully supports 802.11i security features and the 802.11e QoS standard, both of which are critical for high-priority voice and video services.b
Contact:
Mike Markowitz
Tel: +1-212-8218959
michael.markowitz@st.com
Mor Abraham
Marketing Communications Manager
Metalink Ltd.
Tel: +972-9-9605406
Fax: +972-9-9605544
amor@metalinkbb.com
Source: Samsung, STMicroelectronics and Metalink
