We met last with Vixs at IBC and we caught up with the firm at CES. The main development being discussed was the firm’s chip for adding ‘Over the Air’ (OTA) broadcast content to OTT services. At CES, the news was an improved version, based on the XCode 5516 chipset, which supports dual tuners. The company is working with MaxLinear which is a specialist supplier of RF chips and which is working with Vixs to ensure compatibility with its MXL603 ATSC tuner IC. Morega Systems is also working with the companies to provide software and GEIC of Shenzen is making the EasyOTA design.
Vixs is confident that a combination of the EasyOTA with streaming services will meet the needs of a lot of cable cutters and ‘cable nevers’ in the US. The firm is also working on a quad tuner version. The next step is to build the EasyOTA into an active antenna to make a simple self-contained device and a development system was being shown.
Vixs has integrated its OTT and OTA system into an antenna
VixS last year introduced us to the Vidity secure content system last year and continues to work with it. The firm told us that Samsung is now supporting Vidity, so we reckon that is how it allows OTT access to Blu-rays with its UltraHD Blu-ray player announced at the event.
Finally, the firm continues to do well in selling its UltraHD reference design media players which were very widely used at IBC. (BR)
