V-Silicon's ESVP Alan Chiang:"TV is the core of the smart home."

2021 China Semiconductor Investment Alliance Annual Conference and China IC Awards Ceremony was held in Beijing. V-Silicon (Hefei) Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "V-Silicon") was awarded the "Annual Emerging Company"  of 2021 China IC Awards.

In an exclusive interview,  Alan Chiang, ESVP of V-Silicon, said that V-Silicon focuses on providing technologies,  core SoCs and turnkey solutions related to smart home convergence solutions, and its product line includes SoCs and solutions related to smart TV and set-top box, aiming to deepen the UHD video industry and reconstruct the industrial ecology based on the core technology of high-end TV SoC.

 

V-silicon was founded at the beginning of 2018, jointly established by V-Silicon, Hefei High Investment and Linxin Investment. It will rely on V-silicon's world-leading smart TV SoC products and technologies, combine with the opportunity of China's 4K UHD industry development, actively explore China's HD audio&video market, and lead the technological progress of China's smart TV SoC.

Alan Chiang introducced, V-Silicon's existing products include TV SoC, MEMC, FRC, etc., and it is planning TV SoC+ software turnkey solutions, as well as white and OEM TV (broadcasting, telecom and other operators) markets. The company's advantages is to have the world's leading video technology and years of cultivation in Europe and the United States market, with advanced video, high-quality scaling from HD/FHD to 4K/8K and next-generation 3D audio/speech processing, integrated FRC/MEMC and low-power SoCs, and strategic partnerships with foundries to access the wafer cost with price advantage, which can successfully replace imported SoCs to fill the domestic mid- to high-end market.

On March 1, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Radio and Television Administration and the China Media Group jointly issued the Action Plan for the Development of the Ultra HD Video Industry (2019-2022), making it clear that they will vigorously promote the development of the ultra HD video industry and the application of related fields in accordance with the overall technical route of "4K first and 8K at the same time".

Alan Chiang said, V-Silicon's arrival in Hefei will fill the gap of China's long-term lack of high-end TV SoC and play a significant role in promoting the country's "ultra-high-definition video industry development plan".

"With the popularity of smart applications, TV is still the core of smart home." Alan believes that as the next generation TV, AIoT TV, gradually dominates the connection between the Internet of Things and AI and becomes the core port of various intelligent terminals, the TV will control all Internet of things devices and realize real home automation.

On the one hand, the intelligent terminal will be connected from TV screen, computer screen to car screen; on the other hand, to realize the connection from TV, application, service to content. From a vertical point of view, presenting the SoC - module - board - screen - TV - platform - content industry chain to open up, and from a horizontal point of view, it is property - gate access - small access - door lock (camera) - TV - application (security, health pension, distribution, training) (smart family) and other applications to open up. Whichever aspect, TV is the golden intersection of it.
 

AIoT TV to achieve intelligence and networking, first of all, means the upgrade and revolution of hardware technology, only equipped with industry-leading high configuration and high performance SoCs, in order to smoothly run large 3A games and various software programs. But compared to the top international SoC companies, domestic TV SoC companies are still mainly supplying low- and mid-range SoCs.

 

 

Alan said, that previously, V-Silicon's products were mainly distributed  in high-end markets such as Europe and the United States. In the future, V-Silicon will proceed simultaneously in two directions: on the one hand, it will continue to produce high-end products equipped with industry-leading SoCs, and on the other hand, it will combine its years of experience in SoC development in overseas high-end markets and the needs of the domestic market to develop and produce more SoCs that meet the needs of the domestic market. At present, V-Silicon has cooperated with many famous domestic industrial companies to develop the Chinese market.

 

In recent years, more and more system manufacturers and SoC designers have also invested in the field of smart TV, and the competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Alan told reporters that the advantages of V-Silicon are : first, the technology has unique innovation and rich IP resources, support the research and development of image quality algorithm, including ultra high resolution and picture quality AI, and support all HDR formats. Second in terms of software, the overall delivery and successful transplantation of TV software, supporting Vizio, Roku, Loewe, Metz, Android, Google Cast, Airplay2, etc., with rich experience in TV Internet of Things and voice control, and with Vizio, Roku, Element, Philips and content providers have good relationships. Finally, long term cooperation with ODM and Chinese manufacturers, including TPV, Amtram, Foxcon, Skyworth, Hisense and TCL, etc. In this way, V-Silicon can provide Chinese TV SoC partners with high-quality picture quality and display IP, easy-to-use smart TV software platform, mainstream OTT certification and numerous overseas customer support.

In 2020, the epidemic and the trade situation between China and the United States have brought challenges to the development of the SoC industry. In the long run, Alan believes that the development of China's SoC industry provides a broader market space. 5G scale commercialization, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, cloud services and other emerging industries will also become a strong driving force for the development of China's SoC industry. AIoTTV, as the core component of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, has a vast market space in the future. As a SoC design company that has been working in the TV SoC industry for many years, V-Silicon has been practicing its internal strength to turn crisis into opportunity during the epidemic, actively developing domestic customers, opening up the domestic supply chain, accumulating competitive advantages and laying a solid foundation for subsequent localization.
 

In the face of capacity shortage, Alan believes that capacity shortage and price increase require companies to develop their products to high-end and create more added value, while V-Silicon has been deeply engaged in high-end SoCs for a long time, therefore, in a sense, this capacity shortage is beneficial to the development of V-Silicon.

Looking ahead, Alan said that the future of TV is the access to the family digital world, the TV revolution will drive the development of the entire HD industry chain, with the coverage of 5G network, 4K industry ecosystem improvement, 8K key technology product development and industrialization breakthroughs, by then, the overall size of the UHD industry is expected to exceed 4 trillion yuan, forming a good pattern of coordinated development of technology, products, services and applications. The overall size of the UHD industry is expected to exceed RMB 4 trillion, forming a good pattern of coordinated development of technology, products, services and applications. In the era of good development trend and policy dividend, facing the flood of development, Alan said that today's trend provides huge growth prospects for V-Silicon and finally ended this interview with a sentence, sailing is the right time, forge ahead to cast brilliant.