Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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Thales extends its Mobile TV systems capability to support QUALCOMM's FLO Technology

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050426005....

SOUTHWICK, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2005--At NAB 2005, following the launch of its End to End Mobile TV Solution, Thales is pleased to announce the addition of the support of QUALCOMM 's FLO technology. Thales Mobile TV global solution is based on leading edge and already widely adopted systems including:


-- The SmartCast Mobility Video Head end platform

-- The SmartVision Mobility Video Service platform

-- Broadcasting Transmitters Affinity / Optimum / Ultimate for delivery in various bands

Thales showcased mobile TV during the show with comprehensive live demos establishing compatibility with most of mobile TV standards and receiving terminals as well as Broadcasting frequency bands (VHF/UHF/L- band).

Thales and QUALCOMM entered into a co-development program to combine Thales' digital exciter and signal correction experience with QUALCOMM's FLO modulation technology to create a FLO compatible exciter. The ULTIMATE transmitter with embedded FLO exciter will provide an extremely reliable solution for distribution of high quality streaming video and audio content to consumer's handheld devices.

"QUALCOMM is pleased that Thales recognizes the market potential of FLO and has taken positive steps to support FLO technology and MediaFLO," said Jeff Lorbeck, vice president and general manager of QUALCOMM's MediaFLO USA, Inc. subsidiary.

"MediaFLO is evidence of QUALCOMM's continuing innovation in the wireless space and Thales is very pleased with the on-going engineering program with QUALCOMM," states Roger McGarrahan, CEO of Thales Broadcast & Multimedia. "Thales' ULTIMATE UHF solid-state transmitter is a field proven architecture and is a natural fit for any service provider planning to deploy a MediaFLO network."

About FLO technology

The FLO technology was designed specifically for a mobile multimedia environment and exhibits performance characteristics suited ideally for use on cellular handsets. It uses the latest advances in coding and interleaving to achieve the highest-quality reception at all times, both for real-time content streaming and other data services. FLO technology will ensure robust mobile performance and high capacity without compromising power consumption. The technology also reduces the network cost of delivering multimedia content by dramatically decreasing the number of transmitters needed to be deployed. In addition, FLO technology-based multimedia multicasting will complement wireless operators' cellular network data and voice services, delivering content to the same cellular handsets used on these 3G networks.

About ULTIMATE

Thales' ULTIMATE solid-state digital transmitters feature LDMOS broadband amplifiers and digital exciters with Emmy award winning Digital Adaptive Precorrection (DAP), which features on-air automatic alignment for peak transmitter performance. The ULTIMATE liquid-cooled transmitter has achieved great market acceptance, since its introduction, with a customer base that includes numerous references with major US broadcasters and operational networks around the world in various systems and cooling configurations.

About Thales

Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace, security and services markets worldwide. The Group employs 60,000 people throughout the world and generated revenues of 10.3 billion euros in 2004. The Thales Group's broadcast & multimedia business designs, develops, manufactures and markets equipment, systems and solutions in the fields of terrestrial transmission (radio and TV), digital video processing and multimedia distribution for broadcasting, cable TV, satellite and telecommunication service providers worldwide. Thales' Broadcast & Multimedia systems are deployed in 170 countries.