Renesas Electronics Europe and SoftAtHome have announced their collaboration to offer a low-cost STB (set-top box) reference kit that reduces the time to market hybrid IPTV / terrestrial, satellite and over-the-top services. The jointly developed kit combines Renesas Electronics' EMMA3SL/P system-on-chip and the SoftAtHome Operating Platform. It will be demonstrated at IBC in Amsterdam from September 10-14, 2010. The company claims that the integration of the Operating Platform on EMMA3SL/P SoC for STBs provides a low-cost option for operators and service providers wanting to roll out a wide array of key services such as TV, OTT and DLNA-compatible services (as defined by the Digital Living Network Alliance) into the digital home. The collaboration offering comprises a PVR-ready MPEG-4 HD Pay TV hardware and software development kit and a set of software components. These include video, graphical user interfaces, security, network access, content recording and sharing, or remote management. Operators can quickly assemble and customise these through a public API to deploy their services, according to the company. Using the jointly developed reference kit, the company expects that STB vendors benefit from a reliable, low-cost and secure high-definition STB SOC, and short time-to-market.
