The next logical step in mobile TV is standardizing the tuner aspect, and CrestaTech has been working on this for a while. The company announced this week that a $13 million round of funding is officially on the books, which will allow it to press forward in its quest for the next big thing: smart tuners for mobile.
The concept of a smart tuner is a single global platform that works to support all applications, features of devices and cloud services. Rather than different companies working to produce their own options that remain basically incompatible with all other devices, CrestaTech is focused on one type of tuner that will work anywhere and be compatible with any new hardware.
The company patented the smart tuner initially under the Xceive brand, and it features a standard RF tuner and programmable DSP. Bulky CAN tuners from the past can then be eliminated, and the tuners can work in many devices and remain compatible and future-forward. The initial push has been via Smart TVs, but the future for the company is really the mobile TV space, which needs the standard probably more than any other industry.
The 500 million unit TV/STB market is primed for a tuner that fits various needs and can be injected into the manufacturing process. This new infusion of capital is just what is needed to stay along that path. CrestaTech plans to branch out not just to mobile TV devices but also to tablets, ensuring that any device going forward will have a constant option to catch TV signals in an easy and consistent way.
