There is a "significant" addressable market for coaxial cable-based home networking in Europe, according to a new study commissioned by the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA).

The study, which was conducted by IMS Research, examined the existing coaxial infrastructure in the UK, France, the Netherlands and Poland.  Results from the UK and France are described as being very similar, with 56% and 55% respectively stating that they have two or more coaxial outlets, and over a quarter of respondents in both countries reporting three or more. 

In Poland, 71% of respondents stated that they have two or more coaxial outlets and 36% reported having three or more.  The Netherlands recorded the lowest number of coaxial outlets per household, with 45% having two or more and 15% having three or more.

The four countries were chosen because of their competitive pay-TV environments, increasing penetration of HDTVs and DVRs, number of TVs per household, and the high daily TV viewing hours, according to MoCA.

 “We commissioned this survey at the request of many pay-TV operators,” said Charles Cerino, President of MoCA.  “The high percentage of homes having two or more coaxial outlets in these countries means that there is a significant addressable market opportunity for service providers wanting to gain a competitive edge via coax-based home networking.”

It was also noted that there was a "significant correlation" between the number of TVs, STBs and DVRs in a home and the number of coaxial outlets, with the report concluding that coaxial outlets are typically added as the number of TVs being watched in the homes increases. MoCA adds that it is possible that providing consumers with a strong proposition for adding TVs in more rooms would motivate them to add more coaxial outlets.

SiTel Semiconductor today announced how its collaboration with Target Compiler Technologies led to the creation of customized audio DSPs for its SC14452 Green VoIP processor. The DSPs combine extreme energy efficiency with high processing performance, enabling industry-leading audio quality and power consumption. Key components of the SC14452 that won a 2009 Frost and Sullivan Green Excellence Award, the DSPs were developed using Target’s IP Designer retargetable tool suite.

Target’s tools allowed SiTel to develop application-specific Gen2DSPs including a C-compiler, which means customers can program the DSPs themselves. The DSPs operate at low frequency to minimize energy consumption, yet provide high processing power. The SC14552 features two of these DSPs, which together deliver 160 MIPS. At the same time, they help minimize power consumption, enabling in-call power figures below 600 mW.

 With these powerful DSPs on-board, the SC14452 delivers outstanding sound quality for crystal clear communications. It can support four concurrent IP connections, independent of the codec chosen. Currently supported codecs include G.711, G.729, G.722, G.726, iLBC and MP3. Highly integrated, this VoIP solution reduces the overall system bill of materials (BoM) for enterprise VoIP desktop phones and IP-DECT base stations. It features integrated DECT, CAT-iq, DECT 6.0 and KDECT support and a dedicated cryptography engine for complete call confidentially.

SiTel’s drive towards more advanced and flexible System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions is the reason behind the company’s choice of Target’s tools. Target’s IP Designer is the leading retargetable tool suite for the design, programming and verification of application-specific instruction-set processors (ASIPs).

About Green VoIP
Concerns over climate change and fossil fuel supplies have put energy efficiency of all products at the forefront of both consumer and government agendas. For example, the European Commission Regulation on ecodesign (implementing Directive 2005/32/EC) proposes limiting the standby power consumption of domestic and office devices initially to 2 W if the device has a display and 1 W otherwise. A future second phase will further tighten these limits to 1 W and 0.5 W. Similar legislation is currently making its way through Congress in the US.

To help customers respond to these concerns and regulations, SiTel launched the Green VoIP range in 2008. These energy-efficient ICs allow manufacturers to create VoIP solutions that are environmentally friendly and reduce electricity bills. The first Green VoIP product, the SC14450, reduced the net system power consumption for typical applications by 50% to around 800 mW during calls and 550 mW in idle mode. The next Green VoIP processor, the SC14452, pushed down power consumption even further to 550 and 350 mW respectively – meeting the most stringent proposed limits.

Plantronics simplified its growing Unified Communications (UC) portfolio and introduced new audio solutions that help IT departments deploy UC quickly and keep costs down . The new solutions, including a USB desk phone, premium corded headsets and wireless DECT (TM) headsets, deliver brilliant audio, unmatched quality and ease of use across all work environments.

The Plantronics Unified Communications product portfolio is now organized into the following product families:
Blackwire (TM), Calisto (R), Savi (TM) and Plantronics Voyager (R) UC. The simplified product families are designed for easy IT decision making. Many products provide full call control functions for UC applications from partners including Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and Skype.

Simplifying UC Deployments
The new Plantronics Unified Communications product families give IT departments a single trusted vendor for a wide variety of audio solutions. From executives in the corner office to mobile sales teams to knowledge workers around campus or in the office, Plantronics’ breadth of product options enable clear, reliable conversations across an array of environments. Equally important, the audio solutions are easy to use and install, so IT departments aren’t burdened with support requests.

Plantronics Blackwire: Corded USB Wideband Headsets
Designed for in-office and mobile PC-based conversations, the Blackwire family includes the new Blackwire 420, a foldable headset designed for a mobile worker which can lay flat next to a laptop for portability. It has in-line controls for volume, answer/end and mute. Installation is easy via USB plug-and-play connectivity. The Blackwire line includes five headsets with wideband audio, call control and noise canceling microphones in both mono and stereo.

Plantronics Calisto: Wideband USB Phones
The Calisto family includes the new Plantronics Calisto 540, an Optimized for Microsoft Office Communicator deskphone. The Calisto 540 is ideal for stationary workers who primarily use the PC for voice conversations and want the familiarity of a desk phone. The Calisto family of products also includes a USB speakerphone and a handset.

Plantronics Savi: Wireless DECT USB Wideband Headsets
The Savi family includes new binaural and monaural headband versions of the award-winning Savi Office product. The Savi family of products is designed for knowledge workers who use both a deskphone and the PC for making calls and want the freedom of mobility with the clear audio quality. Savi Office enables inoffice professionals to listen to any PC-based audio such as music players, streaming audio and video, webinars and podcasts, and make calls via the desk phone or PC with a simple press of a button. With Savi Office portfolio, IT departments looking to standardize with one headset system can now offer users a choice in wearing styles.

Plantronics Voyager UC: Bluetooth (R) USB Wideband Headset
For mobile professionals, Voyager PRO UC, introduced in November 2009, combines Plantronics’ awardwinning Voyager PRO Bluetooth headset with a plug-and-play Bluetooth USB adapter to deliver richer wideband audio on softphones along with Voyager PRO’s superior noise and wind cancellation on both mobile phones and softphones. The Plantronics Voyager PRO UC headset supports multipoint technology that allows users to switch between their mobile phone calls and PC calls with the touch of a button. Pricing and Availability

Almost a year ago we mentioned that it would be great to have CAT-iq/DECT products based on Android. At that time many thought that we were insane. It is good that Binatone and DSP have chosen for this direction.

DSP Group and Binatone, a Motorola Official Licensee and a leading consumer electronics firm, announced today that Binatone has chosen DSP Group's XpandR chipset for its multimedia cordless home phone powered by Android(R). The Motorola phone will be available Q3 2010 in the U.S.

The Motorola HS1001 cordless phone offers Internet services such as e-mail and web browsing, via local Wi-Fi connectivity, and a touch screen interface with a virtual keyboard. DSP Group's XpandR chip set, the world's only system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution supporting both Wi-Fi and DECT 6.0, powers cordless communications and a full spectrum of multimedia applications for the home phone.

read in connectedplanetonline.com by John McDonald

As CAT-iq offers ultra low power solutions for smart grid we found this article relevant for you.

Creating a smarter grid is the “checkered flag” our industry has been eyeing for years — long before the term “smart grid” was coined. We’ve developed the technology and assembled the pieces, but deployment has been confined to local exits from the slow lane.

Now, with stimulus funding and increasing consumer awareness, it’s time to move smart grid into the express lane. We have a phenomenal opportunity to accelerate smart grid deployment, and we’ll need a strategic road map in place to optimize the integration of smart technologies into our infrastructure. We also need to shift gears from traditional “siloed” processes to a strategic, holistic drive toward energy delivery.

Driving holistic strategies
The strategic road map to a smarter grid starts with open, collaborative strategies from key drivers of smart grid solutions.

Read the complete article.

John D. McDonald, P.E., is an IEEE Fellow and past president of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES). He is also a member of IEC Technical Committee (TC) 57 and Working Groups (WGs) 3 and 10, the VP of Technical Activities for the U.S. National Committee (USNC) of CIGRE, and the past chair of the IEEE PES Substations Committee. Additionally, Mr. McDonald is the General Manager of Marketing for GE Energy T&D.

TES Electronic Solutions announced the availability of MAGiK, a media and graphics innovation kit. MAGiK is an open platform for rapid application and product development ideal for applications such as home automation, entertainment systems in transportation and industrial displays.

MAGiK leverages TES' competence of integrating technologies in graphics, multimedia, electronic design services and manufacturing. The innovation kit is a combination of a flexible production ready system module based on a Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) OMAP3530 applications processor along with a generic I/O board, offering a host of multimedia connectivity and expansion to suite most embedded development requirements. The user interface, a key aspect in most products today is accelerated by the use of TES Guiliani HMI framework and tools. The Guiliani UI editor provides developers with a quick and easy way to create and deploy stunning visual effects using OpenGL® ES, and the framework is coupled with the powerful media framework OpenCORE™ to bring a host of media playback and recording features.  MAGiK is offered today with a choice of Linux, Windows® Embedded CE 6.0 or Android.

Typical applications for MAGiK are home media devices, museum AV guides, portable industrial measurement devices, building security, media phone with DECT, personal medical devices, portable GNSS displays and digital signage.

Click here for more information on MAGiK.