Quantenna reveals 802.11ac Set-Top Box reference design with STMicroelectronics

Quantenna’s QSR1000 4×4 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology is paired with STMicroelectronics’ Liege STiH206 STB solution in a seamless set-top box design

FREMONT, Calif. & GENEVA — IBC 2013 — Quantenna Communications, Inc., a leader in ultra-reliable Wi-Fi networking for whole-home entertainment, announced today a single board Wi-Fi enabled set-top box reference design platform with STMicroelectronics that will significantly reduce the cost and accelerate the time to market for broadcasters to enable wireless streaming of multimedia throughout the whole home network. The combined reference design features Quantenna’s QSR1000 chipset, the only “wave 2” 802.11ac solution available in the market, and ST’s STiH206 Liege platform that has full-featured HbbTV, the widest choice of middleware providers and the latest CAS certification. The design brings best-in-class performance of all STB functionalities with more than 30 percent higher DMIPS than competing solutions and the latest 802.11ac standard for an unmatched wireless OTT, PayTV viewing, gaming and multimedia sharing user experience throughout the home. Using Quantenna’s 4×4 802.11ac Wi-Fi, the combined solution will deliver the world’s fastest and most reliable wireless streaming of bandwidth-intensive data, such as video content.

The new reference design will bring the following additional benefits to customers:

• Fastest Wi-Fi with 1.7 Gbps total throughput
• Future proofing with wave 2 802.11ac technology
• Lowest cost platform design which can be applied across multiple market segments including both hardware and software accomplished with lowest cost eBOM incorporating 16 bit DDR3
• Shortest time to market for all industry segments via the full featured ST HbbTV pre-integrated solution with the widest choice of CAS certification and middleware adaptations
• Future proof solution supporting evolving Interactive Services, L2 Cache frees up resources for interactive applications and the only wave 2 802.11ac solution supporting MU-MIMO

“Wi-Fi is a crucial connectivity technology for the next generation of wireless STB,” said Gian Luca Bertino, Executive Vice President and General Manager Digital Convergence Group, STMicroelectronics. “This joint reference design will significantly reduce the solution cost for the providers while accelerating the time to market, while delivering best in class performance. This will allow us to further expand our leadership position across multiple markets with a single design.”

“We are proud to further expand our relationship with market leaders like ST,” said Dr. Sam Heidari, CEO of Quantenna. “The deployment of a reference design with our QSR1000 wave 2 solution will bring the best user experience to TV and content viewing. We have great relationship with ST and look forward to further collaborations and innovation in the future.”

The reference design is available now to OEMs for media gateway system integration and will be shown by Quantenna and ST at IBC in Amsterdam from September 12-16, 2013. Leading OEMs including Technicolor and Airties will also be showcasing their Quantenna 802.11ac based solutions at the show. To set up a press meeting with Quantenna during IBC, please contact: quantenna@lewispr.com.