Designing for global STB markets

Common among the needs of STB OEMs & ODMs are those for integrated hardware/software solutions. Virtually all want proven reference designs to minimize hardware design & engineering, and to enable rapid time-to-market (TTM). Many STB suppliers also need proven turn-key software platforms to accommodate broadly varied market requirements.

China Cable STB Market
As a prime example, the China Cable STB market is exploding. Why? There were approximately 140 Million analog cable subscribers as of 2005. However, Chinese Government policy mandates transition to digital cable within the next 5 years.

According to figures from the Chinese government agency SARFT, there were approximately 3 Million digital cable (DVB-C) subscribers in 2005, which grew to over 11.5 Million subscribers in 2006. Market expectations are that the China digital cable set-top box market will grow to an estimated 15-20 Million units this year & to nearly 30 Million units in 2008, a ten-fold explosion from 2005 to 2008, well on the way to being a 140+ Million unit STB opportunity within the next 5 years.

The China market has several nuances that present design challenges for OEMs & ODMs designing STBs. First, unlike other geographies where the cable operator market is highly concentrated, there are over 100 cable operators addressing the China market. Second, beyond the requirements for DVB-C, there's a need for data browser capability and conditional access requirements also vary significantly between service providers.

Presently, however, there is no interactive software standard. As a result, requirements vary among the multitude of cable operators, which increases the challenges for set-top box designers and chip vendors.

What's more, beyond the data browser requirements, STB vendors serving the China market also require multiple conditional access (CA) solutions " involving both domestic and foreign vendors. While each of these conditional access vendors involves investment in software porting and certification, many of the vendors also have unique security requirements which impact chip and set-top box designs.