San Jose, Calif. — Jan 4, 2008 — Auvitek, a leader in ATSC receiver/channel decoder ICs and Dasan, Korea’s leading supplier of broadband access equipment, announced today that Korea Telecom’s Megapass FTTH service is being widely deployed utilizing Dasan’s IPTV set-top box incorporating Auvitek’s AU8522 ATSC/NTSC/QAM demodulator.
The IPTV market in Korea is exploding and is expected to reach 6M subscribers by 2010. Korea Telecom’s market leading broadband service known as Megapass TV provides broadband services at data rates of up to 50Mb/s. Megapass TV uses FTTH as the WAN connection and enables a multitude of services including real time broadcast of HDTV programming, video-on-demand and a host of interactive services. One of the key differentiators is the “Broadcast Quality” of HD programming, which enables live viewing of HD channels off-the-air without affecting the bandwidth utilization on the network. This not only preserves full bandwidth for commercial services, but also provide consumers with broadcast quality HDTV programming.
The main criteria in the selection of the ATSC receiver are consistent performance across diverse conditions and locations as well as overall system power and cost. “With Auvitek’s high-performance AU8522, we are able to provide a crystal clear, error free, broadcast quality HD programming to the consumer; and it is done without any impact on the network bandwidth.” said DASAN Marketing Director James Park.
“We are honored to be selected by Korea Telecom and Dasan for deployment in the Megapass service,” said Auvitek President and CEO Pete Birch. “As availability of HDTV content continues to expand, the burden on the “pipe”, be it DSL or cable or satellite, will continue to grow. A high-quality off-air receiver solution, such as being utilized by Dasan, will alleviate the burden and open up bandwidth for many new, exciting services.”
The Auvitek AU85xx family of ATSC demodulator solutions are shipping today in a wide range of end products for both the consumer electronic and personal computer markets, including IP-STBs, digital TVs, PCI cards, and USB TV sticks.
Korea Telecom’s New Megapass TV Advanced Video Services
Megapass is the flagship high-speed broadband service of KT, currently providing broadband rates up to 50 mbps, the highest speed among all broadband services in Korea. For their new Megapass TV offering, KT intends to use fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), a fiber-optics deployment that is carried all the way to the customer’s home. FTTH is a more upgraded version than the existing copper-line-based ADSL service, ensuring a safer connection and serving as a bridge to the next generation telecom broadcasting convergence services, such as internet protocol television (IPTV).
The new Megapass TV will feature a multitude of services, including live television, pay per view, high definition content, video-on-demand, and a host of interactive services. Video-on-demand is expected to be one of the most compelling aspects of the service and will offer more than 2,500 titles for consumer selection. KT started shipping the box with the Megapass TV service from the third quarter of this year.
About Korea Telecom
Korea Telecom (KT) is the leading telecommunication operator in Korea offering a broad range of telephony, internet and data services with country wide coverage and over 20M subscribers. KT expects high penetration level with expected high volume deployments of Megapass TV within one year of the launch.
About Dasan’s STB
Dasan’s EPON solution with the associated IPTV set-top box provides premium grade triple play services to Korea’s fast growing IPTV subscriber base. Powered by Auvitek’s AU8522, Dasan’s STB enables a broadcast quality error free HD programming in addition to other services such as broadband connection and personal video recording. Dasan’s new solution utilizes a passive optical network, which delivers Gbs/sec bandwidth to the consumer using high bandwidth optical fiber instead of copper wires. This bandwidth enables the low cost delivery of bandwidth intensive applications such as VOD with greater data access and VOIP telephone services.
About Dasan
DASAN is the largest broadband equipment manufacturer in Korea. With the acquisition of Dasan by Siemens, Dasan is able to capitalize with expanded resources to target a global expansion in broadband equipment market.
Dasan and Auvitek are working closely together to exploit these unique core competencies and provide state of the art solutions for the broadband market .
About Auvitek
Auvitek International Ltd. is a leading fabless semiconductor company focused on developing ICs for the worldwide Digital Television and Multimedia Convergence markets. With US operations based in Silicon Valley, Auvitek has development sales, and support offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Based on patented FADETM (Fully Adaptive Demodulation and Equalization) technology, and combined with extremely efficient and unique algorithms, these products offer the highest performance demodulation solutions in the industry. This leading edge technology is helping Auvitek revolutionize DTV design by delivering crystal clear video and audio to the consumer electronics and personal computer markets. Auvitek is backed by leading investors including Bank of America Ventures, KLM Capital Group, Storm Ventures, and VenGlobal Capital.
Press Contact for Auvitek
Rebecca Mack
Bergman Mack & Associates
949-981-4496
