EMBARGOED until 3PM Pacific Standard Time (GMT -8 hours), 9 January 2012
NXP Automotive Digital Radio solution to include DRM
A new digital car radio solution including DRM will be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2012) in Las Vegas this week. The DRM Consortium and NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI) will present one single automotive digital radio solution for all the three key global digital radio standards – DRM, HD radio and DAB/DAB+/T-DMB – on the same co-processor, the SAF356X. The car radio platform will be unveiled on Tuesday, January 10th, at the NXP booth, Central Plaza – CP8- during a Digital Radio Mondiale Reception with DRM Consortium and key representatives from the entertainment electronics industry.
The inclusion of DRM in this device is mainly aimed at the booming Indian car market. The new NXP SAF356x will make it possible for listeners to receive DRM radio signals while travelling anywhere across India. In 2010 the Indian Government gave green light and allocated funds for the radio digitisation of All India Radio (AIR), the public radio broadcaster. The largest MW DRM transmitter in the country (and one of the largest in the world with a power of 1 Megawatt) has been already installed in the west of the country with transmissions due on the air imminently. Since November 2011 All India Radio has doubled its daily DRM transmissions from Delhi to 16 hours a day.
Torsten Lehmann, General Manager Car Entertainment business, NXP Semiconductors, says: “With this product we now have a single hardware platform covering all the main terrestrial digital radio standards, enabling us to offer our customers a truly global solution. This product supports NXP’s Car Entertainment strategy of taking the lead in software-defined multi-standard digital radio solutions. DRM will enable a significant proportion of the population in countries such as India to receive high quality radio broadcast for free. As such, we’re really excited to help bring this standard especially to the world’s emerging markets.”
Ruxandra Obreja, DRM Chairman, says: “NXP, a DRM member, are well known in the industry for their quality semiconductors and chip boards. Getting a new DRM solution for India and the rest of the world will definitely advance the DRM roll-out in one of the premier radio markets of the world. The 10th of January event attended by senior members of the DRM is a first for the Consortium at CES, a signal that DRM is not just a theoretical proposition but a consumer electronics one, too.”
DRM Consortium representatives available at the event
Alexander Zink, Fraunhofer IIS – Vice Chairman DRM Technical Committee, Vice Chairman DRM Association
Ludo Maes, TDP Radio -Vice Chairman DRM Consortium
T.V.B. Subrahmanyam, Analog Devices India PVT Ltd – Chairman DRM Asia Group
About NXP Semiconductors
NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI) provides High Performance Mixed Signal and Standard Product solutions that leverage its leading RF, Analog, Power Management, Interface, Security and Digital Processing expertise. These innovations are used in a wide range of automotive, identification, wireless infrastructure, lighting, industrial, mobile, consumer and computing applications. A global semiconductor company with operations in more than 25 countries, NXP posted revenue of $4.4 billion in 2010.
Additional information can be found by visiting www.nxp.com
About Digital Radio MondialeTM (DRM
Digital Radio MondialeTM (DRM) is the universal, openly standardised digital broadcasting system for all broadcasting frequencies below and above 30 MHz, including LW, MW, SW, band I, II (FM band) and band III.
DRM provides digital sound quality and the ease-of-use that comes from digital radio, combined with a wealth of enhanced features: Surround Sound, Journaline text information, Slideshow, EPG, and data services.
DRM on short, medium and long wave for broadcasting bands up to 30 MHz (called ‘DRM30’) provides large coverage areas and low power consumption. The enhancement of the DRM standard for broadcast frequencies above 30 MHz (‘DRM+’) uses the same audio coding, data services, multiplexing and signaling schemes as DRM30 but introduces an additional transmission mode optimized for those bands.
For more information and DRM updates please visit www.drm.org
Contact: pressoffice@drm.org
Telephone: +44 20 75 57 32 71
