The Hindu Business Line : Ittiam developing digital IFE systems

THE DSP(digital signal processing) IP licensing company, Ittiam, which has designed i-Pod-like portable media players for OEM customers, is now developing digital on-demand inflight entertainment (IFE) systems for a new generation of aircraft.

Says Mr Srini Rajam, CEO, "On long haul flights, many carriers are looking to provide `on-demand' inflight entertainment, where songs, movies, sports, video clips and games are streamed from servers to suit each customer's requirements. The content could be from a variety of sources and Ittiam has seen demand for such systems from a couple of companies looking to overhaul the analog IFE systems on their aircraft and differentiate the services that can be offered".Ittiam has also licensed its portable media player to more than 20 OEM Asian and American customers, says Mr Rajam, adding the PMP reference design has features from which customers canchoose a combination that suits their requirements.

The company is also working on developing video over Internet Protocol, which uses 802.11n, a future standard that will allow greater security and multiplicity of video channels to be handled. This is suited in home use for personal video communication, since the medium permits CD-quality pictures and is also applicable in corporate video conferencing situations across an organisation's locations, even from a desktop.

802.11n is capable of handling up to 400 MBPS of data, which lets multiple video applications and channels. Ittiam is working with a Korean customer to deliver video over WLAN though the technology is still in the patent stage, Mr Rajam said.

DSP IP is a multi-billion dollar industry and the royalty/licensing stream is picking up, he added. Royalties account for 5 per cent of Ittiam's revenues, but the share is expected to go up to a third of revenues by 2008 - the scaling is in sync with the royalty model for revenues as customers scale into mass production with successful products.

The company is working with Microsoft on the concept of a portable media centre. Apart from American and Asian customers, Ittiam is seeing traction in `the key market of Israel.

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