Audio Video News

Last week, Thomson Multimedia and hard-disk manufacturer Seagate Technology announced an equally owned joint venture to form an independent company, called CacheVision, that the companies say will be focused on "value-added storage-centric systems" for home consumer electronics. The companies are anticipating that advanced consumer-electronics hard disk–based storage modules may soon be needed in many consumer-electronics devices, including TVs, set-top boxes, Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), and DVD players (see previous report).

Currently, Seagate reports that it is the market leader in disc drives for consumer electronics, and for PVRs such as systems marketed by TiVo and Replay, and announced by Sony and others. The companies hope that by forming CacheVision, they can leverage Seagate's activities over the past three years in the consumer market, as well as its existing partnerships with technology developers such as iCompression, Metabyte Networks, EchoStar, and Microsoft WebTV. Seagate says it will also support CacheVision with CE-optimized disc-drive technology, and extensive manufacturing and assembling capabilities.

The companies claim that CacheVision, based in San Jose, California, will soon employ approximately 100 people focused on the design, development, and customization of an array of CE systems including disc drives, compression hardware and software, A/D conversion, and interface connectivity.

For its part, Thomson says it will support CacheVision with its expertise in manufacturing, product development, and technologies for the consumer-electronics mass market—especially in the areas of platforms, user interfaces, digital television, and home networking—and will also bring to CacheVision its relations with key OEM customers and strategic partners such as Microsoft and DirecTV.

Thomson's Thierry Breton explains that "the creation of CacheVision anticipates a profound change in consumer behavior. Consumers are searching for new features, such as time shifting and services on demand, permitted by the integration of hard-disk storage capacity in consumer-electronics products, leading ultimately to the advent of personal television." Seagate's Steve Luczo adds that "CE devices like PVRs offer a significant opportunity both for the storage industry and the consumer-electronics industry. CacheVision provides a new and necessary link between previously distinct technologies: the disk drives and components that were formerly limited to roles in computers, and home devices like TVs and cable set-top boxes that bring entertainment to consumers."

CacheVision's new CEO, Richard Johnson, concludes that "We believe the market leaders in consumer electronics will embrace the opportunity to quickly and easily add PVR, caching, and other exciting functions to their own new devices today. In the future, we see continued growth potential. CacheVision is positioned to pursue this future opportunity, developing value-added tools to help consumers store, manage, move, and retrieve data and A/V content from these devices."