RT-RK unveils new in-car digital TV receiver

Serbian consumer electronics company RT-RK has announced a new digital TV receiver for automobiles.

The company, which has a background in digital TV, Android TV, and infotainment systems, described its new solution as a “novel approach to a next generation digital TV receiver in the car.”

This new solution relies on the network tuner (such as the one for FM radio and other) feeding the transport stream through the IP network to the IVI central unit, where its decoding and processing take place on the application level. This means there are no extra costs or requirements on the IVI side as the processing is solely software-based. 

A digital TV antenna supporting standards such as ISDB-T for Japan, DVB-T2 for Europe, and ATSC 3.0 for the USA, remains the only hardware module requirement for free-to-air TV in this solution.

Nikola Teslic, CEO at RT-RK, said: “With automated driving making its way to highway regulations across the globe, the autonomous driving world becomes in need of more productivity and entertainment apps, and in particular, video content. The time for digital TV signal reception in the car has come. What was once costly can become affordable in a mass production with the powerful SoCs already employed in the infotainment systems. 

“We are talking about more than an order of magnitude more affordable solution to replace the present expensive ‘TV module architecture’ in the car. Our solution relies on what’s already available in the infotainment system. With our expertise in digital TV and Android, our relations with SoC vendors, Google, telcos and operators, RT-RK has the potential to drive this change.”