Kenwood Car TV System Uses Microtune TV Tuners

Microtune announced last week that Kenwood is using its MT2060 silicon tuner in its in-car rear seat TV entertainment systems. Kenwood is targeting the system to the Japanese market using ISDB-T technology.

"Highly integrated tuners represent the future of in-car entertainment, and we are pleased to be a leader in adapting the latest RF technology to our automotive TV systems," said Masachika Komiyama, general executive of the Strategic Technologies Development Center at Kenwood. "Our systems' experience, coupled with Microtune's silicon tuner expertise and established position as an automotive supplier, positions us to bring advanced TV entertainment capabilities to consumers in integrated, forward-looking and passenger-friendly designs."

James A. Fontaine, Microtune president and CEO, said that the automotive market has proved to be a "stable, predictable and sustained business for the [Microtune] company" and that he saw an opportunity to move automotive customers from traditional TV tuners to highly integrated silicon tuners.

"It provides the potential not only to expand our customer base but also to penetrate new markets in Asia, in particular Japan," Fontaine said. "With our long history as a supplier to the automotive market and with our portfolio of customer-proven digital TV tuners, we are well positioned to provide the enabling RF technology that permits our automotive customers to develop car-TV systems that enhance the vehicle passenger experience."

Four MT2060 tuners are used in the Kenwood diversity DTV receiver.