Kenwood 2000 Annual Report Download - page 8

Recent years have seen explosive growth in the
number of PC users, Internet users, and users of
cellular phones and other mobile equipment. During
the next few years, a series of new services will be
introduced - digital broadcasting on both BS and
surface waves, a broadband cellular phone service,
and so on. In other words, our society is facing waves
of changes, the so-called IT revolution, as we
continue into the new millennium. In order to stay
ahead of the changes, Kenwood is striving to
incorporate IT in the product development of each
major business area: Home Audio, Car Audio, and
Communications. The results of such efforts can
already be seen in the popular car audio players with
MP3 decoder, in digital broadcast receivers being
supplied to broadcasters abroad, and in the optical
microphone that has a potential to be a key
component in diverse industrial fields. Kenwood
continues to develop new technologies and products
that will set the tune for the age, by combining its
expertise in hi-fi audio and high-frequency equipment
with the latest IT offered by the industry.
By fusing IT with its unique know-how in sound and communications,
Kenwood develops new technologies and products
that will stimulate the society
Technology
Receivers and Components for Digital Broadcasting
There is a worldwide trend in the broadcasting industry toward
digitalization. Kenwood has been marketing DAB receivers for
automobiles in Europe since 1997 and, in September 1999,
started shipments of integrated receiver decoders (IRD) for
CANAL+ in Europe. In March 2000, a contract was signed
with Sirius Satellite Radio of the US to develop a receiver for
digital satellite broadcasts planned to start in March 2001.
Meanwhile, for the Japanese market, Kenwood has developed
a receiver front-end module (NIM) for BS
digital broadcast scheduled to
commence in December 2000, and
plans to supply it to various television set
manufacturers.
Optical Microphone
The world's first optical microphone was developed in
collaboration with Phone-Or Ltd. of Israel. Unlike conventional
dynamic microphones and condenser microphones, it utilizes
the innovative technology of perceiving sound as fluctuations in
light waves. In addition to superior hi-fi characteristics, it offers
a number of benefits such as pinpoint directionality, a
substantial reduction in noise, and compact design. These
advantages make the microphone suitable for a variety of
applications: voice recognition devices
for information equipment, broadcasting
and music microphones, cellular
phones, camcorders, etc. It has the
potential to become the industry
standard for microphones.
KENWOOD Corporation Annual Report 2000
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Car Audio Players with Built-in MP3 Decoder
Z919 and D919 were the first-in-the-industry component audio
systems with built-in MP3 decoders. These models enable
users to use, inside their automobiles, CD-R and CD-RW disks
from their PCs to listen to music recorded in MP3 format.
Since the MP3 format compresses the data to one-tenth the
original size, a CD-R disk can store as much music data as
recorded on ten CDs. Thus one can enjoy uninterrupted
playback without the help of a CD changer. The two models
caught on fast with PC users,
and continue to sell well.