Cavium Brings Smartphone Content to the Big Screen

Smartphones are not only utilized to check the latest score or to send text messages (and yes, make phone calls), but consumers are increasingly taking advantage of mobile video – from personal videos to YouTube (News - Alert) clips. It’s a trend many service providers are looking to capitalize on. 

While Cavium has been focused on providing of highly integrated semiconductor products, the San Jose, Calif.-based company has also broken into the consumer side of video networking with its launch of products that allow users to move content from their smart devices onto the big screen.

In a recent interview with TMCnet, Kourosh Amiri, senior director of marketing at Cavium, said that over the past four to five years, the firm has been focusing on the consumer side, particularly the home/video networking business, with its wireless display and home media distribution.

“One of the greatest things we’ve done recently has been in the area of wireless projection from handsets and tablets to your big screen TV,” Amiri explained. “We are all walking around with smartphones that have video clips and pictures and even watching YouTube…so wouldn’t that be great if we could share that instead of having everyone hovering over your phone and project that on a big screen TV.”

With the new technology to wirelessly project video – and a new standard coming out from the WiFi (News - Alert) Alliance – bringing smartphone content to the big screen is a new trend emerging among tech-savvy consumers.

Cavium offers an adapter that allows consumers connect to HDMI/cable TV by receiving video and audio and then streams the content onto TV. It also allows users to play video games or any kind of entertainment on a handset or tablet through the TV.

“This is a real trend in the industry. We are focusing quite a bit on this type of technology. A key area we see happening here, in addition to supporting wireless display or mirroring type features, Cavium also has a set-top business that allows you to bring OTT content also to the box,” Amiri explained. “So the same platform will be able to support a combination of wireless display and streaming video applications, so this way the consumer only has to have a single box sitting next to their TV and they can support all different kinds of content whether its stored on their handset or it’s in the cloud.”

Earlier this month, Cavium announced its OCTEON Fusion platform will be deployed by SK Telecom (News - Alert), a mobile service provider in Korea, to power the 4G/LTE small cell deployment, TMCnet reported.

OCTEON Fusion is specifically designed for LTE (News - Alert) & 3G multi-mode small cell base stations, including picocell and micro base stations. OCTEON Fusion processors combine OCTEON’s widely successful multi-core architecture along with purpose-built Baseband DSP cores, extensive LTE/3G hardware accelerators and digital front end (DFE) features into a single chip, slashing the BOM cost and power envelope of small cell base stations.

Want to learn more about how video is helping to transform the industry? Don’t miss Video World Conference & Expo, collocated with ITEXPO West 2012 taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX.  Stay in touch with everything happening at Video World Conference & Expo. Follow us on Twitter.