Letter to the editor: Silicon Image, HDMI Licensing, and Simplay Labs respond to "Self-serving 'synergy'"
-- EDN, July 28, 2009
In an article recently published on EDN's "Brian's Brian" blog ("Self-Serving 'Synergy': Silicon Image's HDMI Unholy Trinity") the roles of our respective organizations in developing, promoting, certifying and testing HDMI specifications, devices and consumer products were criticized—we believe unfairly. We would like to provide EDN readers with some clarification regarding Silicon Image and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, HDMI Licensing and Simplay Labs and how we work together with our numerous partners and customers to establish standards and products that enable seamless digital connectivity for today's demanding consumer electronics marketplace.
Silicon Image is one of the seven founding members of the HDMI Consortium, a group of companies that created the HDMI Licensing organization to manage the licensing of the HDMI technology specification. The other Consortium founders are Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Thomson and Toshiba. Collectively, this group is responsible for the definition, development and final approval of each generation of the HDMI technology specification. Silicon Image is an equal partner with the other founders in this process.
Each new HDMI specification is made available to licensed HDMI technology adopters. HDMI Licensing collects annual adopters' license fees of $5,000 or $10,000, as well as royalty fees ranging between $0.04 and $0.15 per unit sold. The level of royalty fees is tied to compliance with HDMI logo and HDCP content protection requirements.
Three of the seven HDMI founding members, Panasonic, Silicon Image and Sony, manufacture and sell HDMI semiconductor products on a competitive basis. Also, there are approximately 40 chip makers among the over 800 HDMI licensees, creating a robust and competitive market for HDMI chips.
Silicon Image is an active supporter of the HDMI technology; however, all of the founding members of HDMI Licensing have equal standing and Silicon Image receives no favoritism from the licensing group. Prior to the recent launch of HDMI 1.4, HDMI President Steve Venuti extended an invitation to every founder to participate in global press activities.
Silicon Image chose to play an active role. Panasonic participated in a press conference in Japan, in May, and discussed the benefits of 3D functionality. Hitachi also attended the Japan press conference. Both Molex and JAE, key contributors to the development of the new connectors announced with the 1.4 version of the specification, also participated in the Japan event and continue to participate in world wide events.
HDMI Licensing also oversees technology specification compliance testing for HDMI products and governs Authorized Testing Centers (ATC) where licensed manufacturers can submit their products for testing. Any HDMI Founder can establish one or multiple ATCs, and indeed have done so. The HDMI Compliance Test Specification (CTS) represents the HDMI interface electrical and protocol compliance testing required for licensed products and does not guarantee that a product will function correctly at the system level or seamlessly interoperate with other HD products.
This is where test centers, such as Simplay Labs, add value—independent of the ATCs. Any vendor who would like to have their consumer electronics products system level tested and certified for HD interoperability can submit their product to Simplay Labs for optional system-level interoperability and robustness testing services.
Simplay Labs' goal is to ensure that consumers have a hassle-free, plug-and-play experience. Simplay works with system-level manufacturers, retailers, Hollywood studios and standards bodies to provide a reliable testing process that supports the many devices that make up today's complex consumer electronics environment. Getting products SimplayHD certified is a system-level manufacturer's choice and retailers may choose to sell products that display the SimplayHD-certified label.
As with any independent product testing and validation service, Simplay Labs charges a fee to perform its testing services. These service fees are well within industry norms, given the amount of time required to perform the testing.
The duration of the interoperability and robustness testing can range from 5–21 days depending on the type of device tested, the manufacturer's request for the number of individual features to be tested, and the system's performance. All Compliance Test Specifications (CTS), including the SimplayHD-CTS, HDMI-CTS and HDCP-CTS specifications, follow detailed and specific fail/pass guidelines that have been disclosed to the manufacturer. Recognizing the value of Simplay Labs testing, many customers have incorporated the testing process time into their product development cycles to meet time-to-market objectives.
Silicon Image and its subsidiaries HDMI Licensing and Simplay Labs are dedicated to working with customers, fellow founders, technology adopters, and system-level manufacturers to provide products and services that enable seamless digital connectivity for consumer electronics products.
Sincerely,
Steve Tirado
President and CEO
Silicon Image Inc.
Steve Venuti
President
HDMI Licensing LLC
Joseph Lias
President
Simplay Labs LLC
