Frontier Silicon, a fabless manufacturer of semiconductors for mobile digital television (MDTV) and DAB digital radio products, has launched Roadster T-DMB, a new mobile digital TV version of the Roadster automotive DAB module.
The module will enable the reception of terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasts (T-DMB) in vehicles, so that manufacturers can add mobile TV to the existing Roadster module’s already versatile DAB digital radio and infotainment capabilities.
Roadster T-DMB is initially aimed at Korean car manufacturers, where the first commercial mobile TV, radio and multimedia services were launched recently by six major broadcasters in the Seoul area. Other key areas of interest for the new module are Germany and the UK, where services are expected to roll out in time for coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2006 via mobile devices.
The Roadster module launched in 2004 is already designed into car audio and telematics systems by several first-tier automotive manufacturers and has successfully completed road trials. Roadster T-DMB extends the capability of this high-performance module so that it can be used to receive mobile multimedia services, including TV. To complement this new product, Frontier Silicon is developing reference designs for complete T-DMB media solutions for the automotive environment. Roadster T-DMB fully utilizes and exploits the Eureka 147 specification (also known as DAB technology) to offer a combination of video and data which when combined with GPS information provides a variety of entertainment, infotainment and traffic information plus place of interest information from a single module. This means it allows the reception of emerging mobile digital TV broadcasts, DAB digital radio with its excellent audio performance, and telematics features such as Traffic Message Channel (TMC), TPEG and other traffic data services.
The module is available for either vertical or horizontal mounting as a fully shielded, self-contained complete system module featuring Eureka 147 DAB receiver, dual band (Band III and L-band) high performance RF front-end, baseband processor, power supply, Flash memory for program and data storage, additional random access memory and a full suite of firmware supporting T-DMB and DAB reception.
The module maintains the low power operational characteristics of other Frontier Silicon modules for digital radio and TV, operating from a single 3.3V supply consuming just 800mW, and also includes a phantom antenna power supply to support active antenna arrangements. The module measures 61 x 37 x 13mm which means it can be mounted inside a 1DIN radio/CD player.
