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STB Market Fuels Need for Infrared Technology
September 1, 2010 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
In the last few years, televisions have witnessed significant changes with the move to high definition TV (HDTV). As an established market, there was also the reverse engineering to make existing equipment compatible and, hence, the governments converter box program. While this was an important step in the government mandating the move to HDTV, some would say it was also a colossal waste of money and resources (consider all those advertising dollars), but it did provide a coordinated path to adopt this new technology. This difficult leap was, however, just another step on the path to improved and interactive entertainment and information.
World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) has stated that the 2009 infrared receiver market exceeded $225 million. This comprised more than 800,000,000 IR receivers (or approximately one for every eight people on earth). The vast majority of these were soldered into the major consumer electronics items we have in the home, TVs, set-top boxes (STB), DVD players and surround-sound systems. In fact, infrared is used as the primary remote control technology by all TVs and most consumer electronic applications. People are excited about ZigBee and other RF signal-based systems, but having the neighbor in your apartment building change the channel just as the ball is reaching the end-zone is a problem which some say must be addressed. Infrared as the incumbent, is also well understood by design engineers and is naturally a "low-cost" solution, due to the economies of scale created by the global consumer market. Based on this strong foundation infrared is also developing in the future and growing markets of 3-D TV and bi-directional communication.
XMP®-2, or Xtensible Multimedia Protocol, from Universal Electronics Inc. (UEI) has now been introduced. This bi-directional protocol will allow the hand-held remote to receive and display information about the program being viewed. Given the possibility to program recordings, search for channels/topics and also capture behavioral data, XMP-2 is generating increased interest, especially from STB manufacturers. By incorporating an emitter and a receiver in both the STB and the remote, important information for advertisers could be incorporated and avoid the need for additional systems (and remote controls) like the current Nielsen ratings system.Major hurdles for IR receiver component designers exist. The XMP-2 protocol is a tight tolerance signal and designing a product that performs well in the very noisy environment a home represents has been critical. In addition, there is a need for the device to operate at a minimum of 2 V, to increase battery life.Another emerging segment of the TV market is 3-D TV. Apart from the high cost, the eyewear is both a new market and a potential barrier for consumers. My first viewing of a 3-D TV in a well-known store included a wired set of glasses. The wire provided a real hazard, as shoppers walked across the carpet in front of me.The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) industry standards group has been working to establish standards for 3-D glasses that avoid the need to purchase complete systems when making partial upgrades. 3-D TVs display separate images for each eye. The active glasses have LCD shutters that ensure only one lens is open at a given time and synchronizes them with the image, so each eye sees only the desired image. This means the brain cannot override the system and sees a 3-D rendition. Again, the "noisy" home environment provides a significant amount of interference (lighting, backlighting and other IR signals). To overcome this, the CEA is considering using a synchronization wavelength of 830 to 850 nm, well below the 940 nm of TVs or STBs. Existing remote control units (RCUs) will filter out these wavelengths. Obviously, the glasses will become thinner and lighter as this technology is developed, but, even now, they use only SMD infrared components.Another important protocol area yet to be addressed is the need to avoid the 36 to 56 kHz band used by RCUs. In fact, several existing manufacturers are already using 25 kHz.
3-D TV wireless glasses and bi-directional remote control units are just two areas of the home into which infrared technology is expanding. The additional potential for interactive communications provided by two-way data transmission and the increase in consumer electronics in the home environment will provide further development opportunities and challenges for surface mount components in the coming years.
XMP-2 is a registered trademark of Universal Electronics, Inc.