1999-04-19 , SSC-9904
Business News From Philips Semiconductors

Digital TV Application Software Environment operates on the TriMedia™ DTV Reference Platform offering interactive services to consumers

Philips Semiconductors today demonstrated enhanced television programming technology for ATSC digital TV (DTV). The software technology operates using the proposed ATSC data transmission standard and proposed Digital TV Application Software Environment (DASE). The new enhanced television demonstration is the result of a development project with Philips Research that is designed to bring interactive programming to digital broadcasts.

The demonstration runs on the Philips Semiconductors' TriMedia™ DTV Reference Platform, using a TriMedia  TM-1100 processor, and provides users with a first-hand look at the capability of the ATSC standard to support datacasting services. During the enhanced DTV demonstration, the viewer will experience a nationally broadcast commercial for Philips Lighting and, based on the viewer's zip code information entered via remote control into the television, will see information for the location of the nearest Home Depot store. The commercial broadcast contains data for the entire list of Home Depot locations. A Java applet running on the television set displays the correct location based on the stored zip code information entered by the viewer.

"The enhanced television demonstration shows the value of incorporating a programmable processor in an ATSC television receiver," said Dirk Logie, general manager of Philips Semiconductors DTV Business Line. "In addition to handling the decoding for the video program, the TriMedia chip can process and display datacasting content, support a reverse communications channel and an Internet browser."

"This technology demonstration is just the first step in adding a new dimension to ATSC television with datacasting and interactive services," said Bill Lord, Enhanced Television project manager for Philips Research. "The proposed DASE standard will eventually support a wide variety of services."

The Home Depot location data is multiplexed into the ATSC transport stream to make the enhanced TV capability possible. All software for the demonstration was developed in accordance with both current and proposed ATSC standards. Potential enhanced TV applications for ATSC datacasting using the DASE standard include the availability of content-specific, on-screen product information and, by utilizing a reverse communications channel, real-time product purchasing and Internet browsing.

Philips Research, Briarcliff Manor, New York, is part of Philips Corporate Research, of Royal Philips Electronics. Philips Corporate Research comprises laboratories in six countries: The Netherlands, France, Germany, Taiwan, England and the United States of America (collectively some 3,000 people). Philips Research concentrates on investigating promising options for innovations, which are turned into new or improved products of the Philips product divisions.

Philips Semiconductors' TriMedia product group was established in 1994 and is based in Sunnyvale, California. The mission of the product group is to bring to market high-performance, programmable multimedia processor technology that will power the next generation of multimedia products at an affordable price. TriMedia's website is  http://cdrom.semiconductors.com/trimedia.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eighth largest semiconductor supplier in the world (according to Dataquest's preliminary 1998 ranking by sales). Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by systems labs.

TriMedia is a trademark of Philips Electronics North America Corporation.