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IDontUseTheForumSoWhyAmIForcedToMakeANickname
Using a phone as a dumb monitor is one of the best innovations I've seen in a ...
ughhhh
You can integrate a lot. But does it make sense? When I go skiing I will not ...
Yoshida in Vegas: How to walk away from smartphones
Junko Yoshida
1/14/2013 2:20 PM EST
Why go wireless?
HD video cameras have become so much smaller these days. They can be mounted on a bike helmet or embedded in goggles or even worn on a vest by war correspondents.
Chris Day, Ambarella's vice president of marketing and business development, remembers one of the first customer meeting he had when he joined the company a few years ago. The customer wanted to know what percentage of these tiny sports cameras might become wireless. Day guesstimated about 20 percent at that time. Day told me last week, “Well, I actually had no idea. But I didn’t want to give them a number that may sound too small to them…so I just said, 20 percent.”
It turns out literally 100 percent of those wearable sports cameras today come with wireless features.
Who knew?
More importantly, the point of these tiny cameras going wireless is that users can now use a smartphone as viewfinder and monitor. “You can’t see what you are recording unless you have a display,” said Day. In other words, consumers can now do wireless preview, playback and upload of still and videos to a smartphone (or to the Internet)--all via WiFi.
In the end, keeping Ambarella--which went public last October--healthy today is a camera business that exploits the proliferation of smartphones. How cool is that?
Ambarella announced at the CES a new camera system-on-chip, called A9, featuring support for the new 4K ultra HD video standard, advanced fast-action video features and full wireless connectivity.
In addition to 4K video resolution at 30 frames per second, the A9 supports high frame-rate video for capturing fast-action sports with 1080p video at 120 frames per second or 720p video at 240 frames per second. Higher frame rates enabled in the A9 SoC would be perfect for capturing fast action and playing back in smooth slow motion (i.e. Think Asian customers who want to review their golf swing).
Ambarella takes pride in the solid video coding and image processing technology the company’s team has developed over the years.
With renowned engineering executives like Ambarella’s CTO, Les Kohn, who was a fellow at Sun developing Sun’s UltraSPARC, and Ambarella’s executive vice president Didier LeGall, co-founder and CTO of C-Cube, “We know how to do rocket-science stuff when it comes to microcode, algorithms and computational optimizations,” said Day. He added, “Our claim-to-fame is that our chips are extremely low power.”
Ambarella also represents a new generation of Silicon Valley companies who learned to leverage the power of both Asian and Silicon Valley expertise.
While Ambarella’s US team focused on core architecture of the video chip and its algorithms, Ambarella’s Taiwan team is responsible for system-level software for SDK. Ambarella’s Chinese team in Shanghai is focused on the development of Linux and Android-based IP cameras, while its Shenzhen team is responsible for dealing with local developers and local OEMs/ODMs.
Related stories:
CES Slideshow: Next big (or little) things
CES slideshow: Gadgets galore at opener
HD video cameras have become so much smaller these days. They can be mounted on a bike helmet or embedded in goggles or even worn on a vest by war correspondents.
Chris Day, Ambarella's vice president of marketing and business development, remembers one of the first customer meeting he had when he joined the company a few years ago. The customer wanted to know what percentage of these tiny sports cameras might become wireless. Day guesstimated about 20 percent at that time. Day told me last week, “Well, I actually had no idea. But I didn’t want to give them a number that may sound too small to them…so I just said, 20 percent.”
It turns out literally 100 percent of those wearable sports cameras today come with wireless features.
Who knew?
More importantly, the point of these tiny cameras going wireless is that users can now use a smartphone as viewfinder and monitor. “You can’t see what you are recording unless you have a display,” said Day. In other words, consumers can now do wireless preview, playback and upload of still and videos to a smartphone (or to the Internet)--all via WiFi.
In the end, keeping Ambarella--which went public last October--healthy today is a camera business that exploits the proliferation of smartphones. How cool is that?
Ambarella announced at the CES a new camera system-on-chip, called A9, featuring support for the new 4K ultra HD video standard, advanced fast-action video features and full wireless connectivity.
In addition to 4K video resolution at 30 frames per second, the A9 supports high frame-rate video for capturing fast-action sports with 1080p video at 120 frames per second or 720p video at 240 frames per second. Higher frame rates enabled in the A9 SoC would be perfect for capturing fast action and playing back in smooth slow motion (i.e. Think Asian customers who want to review their golf swing).
Ambarella takes pride in the solid video coding and image processing technology the company’s team has developed over the years.
With renowned engineering executives like Ambarella’s CTO, Les Kohn, who was a fellow at Sun developing Sun’s UltraSPARC, and Ambarella’s executive vice president Didier LeGall, co-founder and CTO of C-Cube, “We know how to do rocket-science stuff when it comes to microcode, algorithms and computational optimizations,” said Day. He added, “Our claim-to-fame is that our chips are extremely low power.”
Ambarella also represents a new generation of Silicon Valley companies who learned to leverage the power of both Asian and Silicon Valley expertise.
While Ambarella’s US team focused on core architecture of the video chip and its algorithms, Ambarella’s Taiwan team is responsible for system-level software for SDK. Ambarella’s Chinese team in Shanghai is focused on the development of Linux and Android-based IP cameras, while its Shenzhen team is responsible for dealing with local developers and local OEMs/ODMs.
Related stories:
CES Slideshow: Next big (or little) things
CES slideshow: Gadgets galore at opener
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iniewski
1/15/2013 10:12 AM EST
Interesting and positive story Junko...but what happens to Ambarella when Apple or Samsung decide to integrate that camera into the next gen smart phone? Kris
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junko.yoshida
1/15/2013 11:56 AM EST
Hi, Kris. Precisely for that reason, Ambarella walked away from the smartphone market. Instead, the company discovered a segment (tiny, wireless sports cameras -- sans displays of their own -- that you can wear on your vest or helmet, for example)that takes advantage of the smartphone.
But of course, if you are saying that those tiny wearable sports cames are going to become smartphones, yes, that could be a problem.
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iniewski
1/16/2013 10:41 AM EST
thank you Junko...yes, if they are truly successful and wireless sport cameras are purchased in large numbers a smartphone company can integrate this in...not an easy strategy to execute, you need to stay in the niche but you don't want your niche to become too large
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ughhhh
1/18/2013 1:46 PM EST
You can integrate a lot. But does it make sense? When I go skiing I will not clip my smartphone to my helmet. There a small WIFI camera makes sense.
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IDontUseTheForumSoWhyAmIForcedToMakeANickname
1/21/2013 9:21 AM EST
Using a phone as a dumb monitor is one of the best innovations I've seen in a while. You only need the display long enough to verify operation so why burden the consumer with the added cost of it. People tend to upgrade their phones every 2~3 years, but the camera should easily outlive that and still be useful. Why didn't I think of that?
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