EMERYVILLE, Calif., Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- C2 Microsystems and Orb
Networks, two leaders in digital home entertainment, announced a new
reference platform that delivers digital media from the internet or a
consumer's PC, to the TV. The open design is expected to be licensed on
an OEM basis by set top box, Cable, Satellite and Media providers and
deliver consumer TV and media options far beyond those offered by Apple
TV or Sling Media.
The integrated reference platform connects the C2 Micro-powered set
top box, embedded media center system, networked portable media player
or networked TV, with a PC running the Orb Media Platform. The result
is seamless access on the TV to users' personal media, as well as
branded content coming from the home PC or the Internet.
In addition, providers and operators can configure a service where
the TV signal -- digital, pay or satellite -- can be directed from the
STB to the PC, leveraging all of Orb's media management and consumption
features, providing the maximum flexibility for the user, including the
ability to watch the TV signal on a remote computer or mobile phone.
"We have brought the best of our technologies together to offer the
OEM and service operators a breakthrough in cost/performance. Now users
can consume ALL their media -- branded content and personal content --
in a single, friendly system", said Herve Utheza, VP & GM, TV
Properties at Orb Networks. "And Orb's advanced sharing and media
management features are unmatched in the industry, making it easy for
you to send to Grandma, on her TV screen, the pictures of the kids."
"The MFB reference platform is capable of handling media decoding,
encoding, transcoding and transrating at a fraction of the cost of the
incumbent designs," said Jinxiang (Gene) Liu, Ph.D. CEO from C2
Microsystems. "We can now offer extremely high performance for
designing PayTV or retail products capable to serve, playback and
stream all sorts of media. Orb brings to this offering two key pieces
of solution: future proofing for the life of the hardware product, as
Internet formats will continue to evolve, and a simple media management
solution for the consumer to pick the media they want, and enjoy it on
the screens they like," he added.
The MFB reference platform is a programmable solution with
extremely high density which offers video processing computing at a
fraction of the CPU cycles, thus allowing for high end transcoding,
post-processing and decoding / encoding capabilities. It has already
shipped in retail products and has already been chosen by leading CE
and STB manufacturers around the world.
"We believe that hardware manufacturers are the ideal people to
integrate best-of-breed reference platforms," added Utheza. "We saw in
the MFB platform a very powerful design which can cost reduce existing
designs faster and accelerate the delivery of the ConnectedHome in both
retail and PayTV environments," he concluded.
Orb software is a free application which consumers use to manage
and access their favorite media from any screens, allowing for more
media consumption, targeted media up-sell, and more.
How Orb Works
Orb is a free media sharing application. Download it to the PC
where you have all your media, and then stream any of the media that is
on your PC -- or anything from the internet -- to another computer,
mobile phone, or TV via C2 MFB/STB reference platform. Download it
today at http://www.orb.com/download_orb
About Orb Networks, Inc.
Orb Networks is an award-winning developer of software and services
that unlock the digital media stored on personal computers. Orb
MyCasting gives consumers secure, free, instant, and everywhere-access
to everything from their photos and video to TV and music on virtually
Web-enabled device. The company's partners and affiliates include: AOL
Winamp, AMD, Creative Labs, Hauppauge, Hutchison, Nokia, Orange and
Vodafone. Orb Networks is a privately held company in Emeryville,
Calif. For more information about Orb Networks and the Orb MyCasting
service, please visit http://www.orb.com.
About C2 Microsystems, Inc.
C2 Microsystems was founded by a group of veteran Silicon Valley
entrepreneurs with the target to create the best technology in the
world for digital home and mobile entertainment. C2 Microsystems is
developing a family of low-cost, high performance, fully programmable
SoCs, which include an integrated software development environment that
is optimized for networked media from portable to high definition
applications. C2's unique approach to media processing involves a blend
of hardware and software implementation of all major audio and video
codecs and an application framework that allows programmers total
control of media applications: any codec, any resolution,
anytime, anywhere. For more information, visit C2 Microsystems online
at http://www.c2micro.com.
Orb and MyCast are trademarks of Orb Networks, Inc. All other
trademarks and/or registered trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
