Frontier Silicon enables easy integration of Rhapsody music service for mass-market consumer audio

At the 2008 CES trade show in Las Vegas (January 7-10), Frontier Silicon is showcasing technology enabling RealNetworks’® Rhapsody® digital music service through stand-alone mass-market consumer audio systems. This new technology can be previewed at Frontier Silicon’s location in room 6636MP, North Hall, Las Vegas Convention Centre throughout the show.

Rhapsody offers consumers a complete digital music experience, with unlimited access to millions of songs, professionally programmed music channels and exclusive music content from MTV Networks' music brands including MTV, VH1 and CMT. With this latest development, Frontier has added firmware to the market-leading Venice 6 multistandard radio module allowing access to Rhapsody’s full range of streaming content. Coupling Frontier’s range of Venice 6-based audio platforms with Rhapsody DNA technologies now enables consumer electronics manufacturers to quickly bring to market a wide variety of inexpensive and differentiated consumer audio products with the rich Rhapsody digital music experience built in.

Anthony Sethill, CEO, Frontier Silicon commented: “We believe that streaming music services such as Rhapsody are one of the most significant new developments in consumer audio. Frontier Silicon is very pleased to be working with Rhapsody to offer a complete player solution based on our versatile Venice 6 multi-mode digital media module.”

“Rhapsody delivers a rich, personalized digital music experience to consumers across a wide spectrum of consumer electronics devices,” said Matt Rowlen, VP of business development, RealNetworks. “We are excited to be integrating our Rhapsody DNA technologies with Frontier Silicon’s audio platforms, making it even easier for device makers to bring new and innovative digital audio devices to market.”

Venice 6 is a truly global product, being the world’s only multistandard radio module capable of receiving Internet radio, Podcast/”Listen Again” service, DAB/DAB+, FM-RDS and music streamed from home PCs. It is based on Frontier Silicon’s Chorus 2 processor and streams radio stations and music files in a variety of formats and protocols including MP3, WMA, and RealAudio.

Demonstrations of Frontier Silicon’s music-on-demand solutions will be made at CES 2008 with the company’s new Jupiter 6 and Quantum 4 platforms. Jupiter 6 is designed for tabletop and kitchen radio designs and Quantum 4 for more comprehensive micro systems. The system is available to manufacturers now.