NXP unveils global TV test lab in Suzhou, China

NXP Semiconductors, the independent semiconductor company founded by Philips, announced the opening of its Global TV Signal Testing Lab in Suzhou to facilitate and fulfill Asia customers' demand for Global TV signal testing. Based on experiences in global TV signal testing, the Lab has been equipped to accommodate both analog and digital signal testing. Capable of standards such as ATSC, DVB-T/C/S and J83B it now enables customers to pre-test their NXP solution based products, sold worldwide, in one single site prior to commencing volume production. A similar testing site was successfully set up at the NXP Research facilities in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

The Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of Chinarecently reports that the number of the color TV sets produced by Chinese manufacturers in 2006 reached 90 million units, representing about 50 percent of the world's total production. In addition, a recent report released by the marketing services department of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) shows that the sales of DTVs has soared more than five-fold in 2006 to nearly 21.6 million units from the 4.2 million units of 2005. The CEA report also indicated that Digital models represented 71.1 percent of the record 30.4 million color TVs sold in 2006.

Alun Jones, BU home regional marketing manager, Greater China, NXP Semiconductors, said, "Greater China has become the world's largest TV manufacture base. We see real demand from our customers for extensive TV signal testing, both analog as well as digital. Building a pre-testing lab requires significant investment in both high technology equipment and in qualified and experienced test engineers. As an industry leader with over 30 years experience in the TV market, NXP is committed to providing value-added services to our customers. With this Lab, our customers will not need to travel to Europe or the U.S. for their initial field testing. They will be able to achieve faster time-to-market, faster resolution of problems due to close proximity to R&D team, reduce equipment hiring cost, enhance quality by reducing field call rate, and enable the convenient transition to digital."

NXP claims that its Global TV Signal Testing Lab is a computer controlled test environment that can generate all kinds of non-ideal RF and AV signals for analog and digital TVs or STBs. It is now open to NXP customers wishing to test their new products. NXP is also planning to include Chinese Terrestrial Digital TV Standards (CDMB-T & ADTB-T) compliant testing in 2008 in its Suzhou lab.

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