MediaTek Adds MPEG-H Audio to its Pentonic Series of Smart TV Chips and Boosts TV 3.0 Access for Brazilian TV Sets

Erlangen, Germany / Hsinchu, Taiwan / Sao Paulo, Brazil -- August 18, 2022 -- MediaTek, a leading fabless semiconductor company, and Fraunhofer IIS, primary developer of the MPEG-H 3D Audio standard, have once again collaborated for bringing the most advanced audio experience to consumer homes.

As a licensed decoder provider in the MPEG-H Audio System trademark program and licensee of MPEG-H software from Fraunhofer IIS, MediaTek has now integrated MPEG-H Audio into its Pentonic series. The range of high-end chips are designed to meet the demands of today’s most sophisticated (Smart) TV applications and include the latest audio and video technologies. With its Pentonic series, MediaTek provides a platform for receiving over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts, over-the-top (OTT) services, and web streaming. Including MPEG-H Audio will enable TV manufacturers to equip their flagship products with immersive and personalized sound for broadcast and streaming applications, making the MPEG-H Audio experience ready for global markets.

MediaTek is also among the first to support the latest VVC (h.266) standard and with native support for MPEG-H Audio, the Pentonic 2000 becomes the first TV Platform adhering to Brazil’s Next Generation broadcast system, currently under specification by the Fórum Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão Digital (SBTVD Forum).

“With Pentonic, MediaTek offers a comprehensive global demodulation platform for receiving OTA broadcasts from all major standards including DVB, ATSC, and ISDB-T,” said Alfred Chan, Vice President of the TV Business Unit at MediaTek. “This makes it suitable to meet the existing specifications in Brazil, and it supports TV manufacturers providing MPEG-H Audio support for today’s TV 2.5 broadcasts, as well as with the future TV 3.0”.

“The upcoming TV 3.0 Standard will mandate VVC video and MPEG-H Audio for efficiently providing an enhanced video and sound experience for broadcast and new media services to the Brazilian audience,” explains Luiz Fausto, Technology and Regulatory Specialist at Globo and coordinator of the SBTVD Forum Technical Module. “We are excited to see that MediaTek’s Pentonic chips already enable TV manufacturers to design their products ready for TV 3.0 broadcast in Brazil, which is expected to start in 2025.”

The MPEG-H Audio system is already in use as the sole audio system in the world’s first terrestrial UHD TV service using ATSC 3.0 in South Korea since May 2017. Additionally, major events around the world have been broadcast using MPEG-H over DVB in Europe and since November 2021, MPEG-H has been used in regular broadcast over ISDB-T (SBTVD TV 2.5) in Brazil. Selected as the sole mandatory audio system for Brazil’s next-generation TV 3.0 system, MPEG-H Audio content will reach more and more households in Brazil and, later on, in other countries in South America.

“We are delighted to have MediaTek as our partner in bringing the benefits of MPEG-H Audio to audiences all over the world,” says Adrian Murtaza, Senior Manager Technology and Standards at Fraunhofer IIS. “As member of the SBTVD Forum, Fraunhofer IIS is excited to see that partners of such caliber are joining us in driving the broadcast audio innovation in Brazil. With this development, we empower even more broadcasters and content creators to provide the most advanced audio experience to audiences in Brazil and all over the world.”

The new TV experience made possible through MediaTek’s adoption of the Fraunhofer IIS technology can be experienced at SET Expo in Sao Paulo, Brazil from August 23 to 26, 2022 and at IBC in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from September 9 to 12, 2022.