Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Multimedia Chipsets: Technologies and Global Markets

“Multimedia” is used in the modern world to describe multiple occurrences of only one form of media such as a collection of audio CDs. In the context of this report, however, any audio, image, and video technology is considered multimedia.

Static content (such as a paper book) may be considered multimedia if it contains both pictures and text, or may be considered interactive if the user interacts by turning pages at will. The term, “video,” if not used exclusively to describe motion photography, is ambiguous in multimedia terminology. Video is often used to describe the file format, delivery format, or presentation format in computer science. Other forms of information, such as audio and video, contain nothing more than information in computers and are treated as such.

Our focus in this report, therefore, is limited to devices (and underlying chipsets) that process audio, video, and images. These devices come in different shapes and sizes and the displays range from an inch to as large as hundreds of inches.

To estimate the market for multimedia chipsets, BCC Research has segmented the market into popular categories of devices and explained how each is unique.

MULTIMEDIA DEVICES:

A wide range of multimedia devices are available today. A brief description of several of them is below:

DIGITAL TV:

Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of audio and video by digitally processed and multiplexed signal, in contrast to the totally analog and channel-separated signals used by analog TV.

SET-TOP BOX:

A set-top box (STB), or set-top unit (STU), is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the source signal into content in a form that can be displayed on the television screen or other display device. Set-top boxes also can enhance source signal quality.

SMARTPHONE:

A smartphone is a mobile phone built on a mobile operating system with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than a feature phone.

The first smartphones combined the functions of a personal digital assistant (PDA) with a mobile phone. Later models added the functionality of portable media players, low-end compact digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and GPS navigation units to form one multi-use device. Modern smartphones also include high-resolution touchscreens and Web browsers that display standard Web pages as well as mobile-optimized sites. High-speed data access is provided by Wi-Fi and mobile broadband.

DIGITAL CAMERA

A digital camera, or digicam, is a device that takes video or still photographs by recording images on an electronic image sensor. Most cameras sold today are digital, and digital cameras are incorporated into many devices, including PDAs, mobile phones (called camera phones), and vehicles.
  
The above is an extract from the BCC Research report, Multimedia Chipsets: Technologies and Global Markets (IFT099A). To download the complimentary first chapter, please click above.

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