In the spirit of the times energy efficiency looms large at IBC 2009, but some vendors have more to boast about than others. Not surprisingly it is the villains of the past such as STB makers with their heavy power consumption in standby mode that are now making the running, with both Pace and Motorola majoring on greenness in their IBC announcements. Both vendors have announced that their latest STBs, Motorola’s HD VIP models and PACE’s emerging 'Low Environmental Impact' payTV systems, surpass current power consumption standards set by relevant bodies such as the US ENERGY STAR, and the European Union’s Eco-Design Directives for Energy-using Products (EuPs).
But there is a limit to what STB or other hardware makers can achieve on their own, even within their own products as well as across the emerging ecosystem of the connected home. At the box level they rely on the manufacturers of silicon to optimise the power consumed by chips and other on-board electronic components. This can be done in two ways, firstly through greater onboard integration, which saves power essentially by reducing the distances current has to travel in the execution of processes such as encoding and therefore wasting less electrical energy through conversion to heat. Secondly for silicon serving STBs, DVRs and any system that must be kept in active standby mode so that it can be switched on almost instantly, the capability of temporarily shutting down dormant processes can save a lot of power.
STB makers will be pleased therefore that leading silicon makers have made progress in both these areas. In particular Broadcom, one of the leading makers of silicon for video communications and processing, announced at IBC a series of system-on-chip products reducing the physical and energy footprint by equal measure. For example Broadcom unveiled the world’s first single chip IAD (Integrated Access Device) incorporating ADSL2+ for external connections, combined with 802.11n wireless LAL, Gigabit Ethernet switching, voice over IP, and DECT cordless voice for communications in the home – essentially a router on a chip.
In the same breath Broadcom announced single-chip HD STBs, one for satellite integrating Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) connectivity in recognition of this standard’s growing acceptance for home cabling even outside the US. Broadcom also announced single-chip cable STB solutions compatible with dual tuners for HD DOCSIS 2.0 or EuroDOCSIS 2.0.
Some of these chip sets, such as the satellite receivers, support shutdown of individual components when not used, while the whole system monitors the network and enables almost instantaneous wake up when required. Such capabilities will not be immediately available in the STBs and other systems built with Broadcom chips, in part because the functions have to be supported by the middleware software driving the service. The goal here is to allow software installed on STBs, DVRs and TVs to have full access to all the on-chip power-down functions. At least Broadcom is heading in the right direction, announcing at IBC integration of its STB system-on-chip solution with Microsoft’s Mediaroom, enabling STB makers to incorporate the extended functions of Broadcom’s integrated chips including selective power-down into Mediaroom-driven boxes. Broadcom also announced collaboration with SoftAtHome, a software provider of home operating platforms that help service providers deliver convergent applications for the digital home, to develop a solution for hybrid, satellite and IP set-top boxes (STBs) accelerating time-to-market for advanced video and TV services.
The software vendors themselves had less to say about their energy saving strategies, other than that they were forming partnerships with key vendors such as Broadcom. There is scope for progress not just in controlling individual components but also managing the emerging home ecosystem more efficiently, enabling whole systems such as DVRs to be kept in the lowest power state possible depending on the state of the network as a whole.
Meanwhile though STB makers such as Pace and Motorola can already point to dramatic savings, admittedly from a starting point of profligate consumption in standby mode in the past. Only a few years ago STBs and TVs consumed 28 watts or more just waiting to be woken up, leading to calls for consumers to switch off completely overnight to save power. While it is easy to reduce power consumed by simple STBs without disk drives and running no software, the task has been more challenging for complex products that require booting up. Leading vendors have succeeded in reducing standby power to around 6 watts, and then at IBC Pace announced it was first to design a complex STB consuming under 1 watt in standby, which means it would consume about the same as an electric heater left on for three hours over a whole year, which would surely be acceptable to all but the most extreme environmental zealots. “As a result we believe our products are amongst the most energy efficient consumer electronics products in the world,” said Richard Slee, Pace’s president.
Motorola announced HD additions to its VIP Series of STBs designed from the ground up for energy efficiency, supporting a hierarchy of low power modes designed to minimise consumption at any given time.
The next step is to really harmonise energy management across the emerging connected home – a theme perhaps for IDC 2010.
About the author
Philip Hunter is a leading specialist writer on the business of delivery and consumption of digital entertainment. He writes widely for both technical journals and specialist web sites, as well as more general interest publications such as Prospect Magazine, conveying complex ideas and subjects in a clear but not condescending manner. In the multimedia content and TV arenas, Philip combines in depth technical knowledge with appreciation of the business models that will bring success in the new age of on-demand content consumption, identifying the opportunities and pitfalls facing operators, broadcasters and content providers as they embrace new platforms beyond the traditional end point of the set top box.
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