More China IP Communications Stories

To cater to customers using applications such as Over the Top (OTT), IPTV (News - Alert), and Digital Cable Set Top Box, Cavium Inc has rolled out a multi-format, high definition (HD) Set Top Box System-on-a-Chip (SoC) processor - the Celestial CNC1800L. A combination of multi-standard MPEG-2 video decoders and highly compressed H.264 ensures compatibility with current and future network deployment, and access to streaming Internet video and services.

For set-top boxes using high definition video formats to broadcast, the Celestial CNC1800 family of processors is optimized. This enables recording and time-shifting of analog broadcasts, video chat, video conferencing, and video transcoding. To ensure that customers receive best possible picture with content delivered at a low-bit rate and low video resolution, advanced picture processing, scaling, de-interlacing, and noise reduction technology are integrated.

All members of the processor family comprise of the wireless video distribution technology- WiVu. Reception and streaming of video to Set Top Box products is now enabled from a variety of mobile devices and consumer appliances.

High performance ARM (News - Alert) CPUs with memory management units supporting DDR2 and DDR3 DRAM, programmable multi-stream transport de-multiplexers, and digital content recording engines are used. Conditional access standards, including Nagravision (News - Alert), and the digital rights management technology (required for OTT video applications and services) is also supported by the processor family.

The Celestial set-top box SoC samples are now shipped to key customers. A demo of the product will be shown at Broadband World Congress in booth L3 in Paris, France from September 27-29, 2011.

In a release, The CTO at GuangXi Cable, Deng GangPing, said, “Our company has chosen the Cavium CNC1800 as the set top box platform of choice for time-shifting and content storage capability. The first phase deployment to our Province's customer base was very successful and we are looking forward to working with Cavium on the next generation SoC CNC1800L."

In 2010, Chinese cable TV subscribers reached a 187 million according to a recent report from China Daily News. By 2013, the OTT-to-the-TV viewers will outnumber traditional managed IPTV viewers worldwide as predicted by Informa (News - Alert) Telecoms and Media. Internet OTT and digital cable entertainment markets are growing rapidly.