Sigma Designs Delivers the World Cup in 3D

Leading French ISP Leverages Sigma Designs’ Media Processors to Deliver First 3D Broadcasts of the World Cup as Well as Europe’s First Ongoing 3D Content

MILPITAS, CA and PARIS — Sigma Designs, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIGM), a leading provider of System-on-Chip (SoC) used to deliver entertainment and control throughout the home, today announced that leading French broadband provider, Free Inc. (Iliad Group – Paris: ILD) is delivering 3D broadcasts of World Cup soccer and ongoing 3D broadcast content, using Sigma’s SMP8634 Secure Media Processor in its industry-leading Freebox triple-play set-top boxes. Delivered via stereoscopic 3D, this is the very first 3D television broadcast in France and one of the first in Europe. In addition to delivering stereoscopic 3D television, Sigma’s leading SMP8634 media processor is also capable of supporting all forms of 3D broadcast.

“Innovation is the hallmark of every Sigma product line and the SMP8634 has done an outstanding job of demonstrating this by supporting services like 3D,” said David Lynch, vice president and general manager, media processor business unit at Sigma Designs. “Sigma is the most widely deployed high definition IPTV processor in the world. Service providers around the world rely on our SMP line of media processors to get a solid return on their design investment which we, in turn, deliver.”

Under the new program, subscribers to Free’s Very High Speed offering who have also subscribed to Free’s CANAL+ channel will have access to CANAL+ 3D (channel 18 of the CANAL+ environment). After the World Cup, CANAL+ 3D will continue to broadcast 3D television programs on a regular basis including movies, animated films, sports, and more. The channel will gradually enrich its programming as 3D production volume increases.

“3D television is a very hot topic in consumer electronics today, but it’s also a very recent development. The fact that Free and Sigma Designs were able to implement 3D decoding on a previously deployed installed base of set-tops speaks to the flexibility of the SMP8630 family of media processors,” said Lee Ratliff, senior analyst for broadband and digital home at iSuppli. “With this announcement, Sigma has highlighted the importance of deploying a flexible platform capable of comprehending future applications.”

Availability

The entire SMP line of 3D-capable media processors from Sigma Designs, including the SMP8634, is available now.