IEEE Spectrum January, 2008 - 33

loser: conSumer

sirius Backseat tv
Goal: to provide three channels of broadcast tv to
children traveling in the backseats of automobiles.
why it's a loser: DvD players and hard disk
recorders like tivo have given parents unprecedented
control of their children's entertainment options; the last
thing they want is to give up that control in the car.
Player: sirius satellite radio's advanced
Development team
where: lawrenceville, N.J.
staff: 15 to 20
BudGet: info not available
More: http://www.sirius.com/backseattv

left over for additional applications
that have yet to be determined but
may include data services.
To squeeze the video into a
package small enough to be transmitted on top of the radio channels
without affecting their reception,
Sirius engineers chose the H.264
standard for video compression
but tweaked it-exactly how they
changed it is proprietary. H.264
was the obvious choice. It's part
of the MPEG-4 suite of standards,
it's in blue-laser DVD systems, and
it's used in Norway for digital TV
broadcasts. A host of other countries are including the standard in
their digital broadcast plans.
The engineers also beefed up
Sirius's existing error-correction
software to reduce dropouts and
designed the system to use two
antennas-one attached to the
front of the vehicle and the other to
the rear-to improve the system's
chances of picking up the satellite
signal. The team also developed a
chip that implements this technology, which is being fabricated by
STMicroelectronics, headquartered
in Geneva. The Delphi Electronics
and Safety Division of Delphi Corp.,
in Troy, Mich., designed and manufactures the receiver hardware.
Sirius signed agreements to
rebroadcast the programming of
three child-oriented TV channels-
Cartoon Network, Disney Channel,
and Nickelodeon. The service, now
called Backseat TV, launched late
last year. It debuts in 2008 Chrysler
Town & Country and Dodge Grand
Caravan minivans (with more car
models in the pipeline) and is sold
through electronics retailers as an
aftermarket add-on. A Backseat TV
44

NA * iEEE SpEctrum * JANuAry 2008

add-on to Chrysler's rear-seat enter- dard, I'd pay to have it taken out!"
tainment system costs US $470; the huffs Catherine McNiel, a mom
whole package, including two DVD in Glendale Heights, Ill. Adds
players, two 8-inch video screens, a Alma Klein, a mother and adverrear backup camera, and a one-year tising executive in Oak Park, Ill.:
subscription to Sirius Radio and TV, "I can only imagine how annoying
costs $2020 for high-end models of it would be to pull into the superthe minivans (in which some fea- market parking lot only to hear,
tures are already standard), more 'No, don't turn the car off, my profor less expensive models. In retail gram's still on!' " [See more comstores, a Sirius Backseat TV receiver, ments at http://spectrum.ieee.org/
without a subscription, lists at $300. jan08/tvextra.]
The subscription price is $7 per
Industry observers acknowlmonth, added to the $12.95 Sirius edge that with so many ways to get
Radio subscription; you can't get a video in the car-portable game
Backseat TV subscription by itself.
consoles, iPods, laptops, and some
The engineers at Sirius are cellphones, in addition to DVDs-
delighted to see their muscle flex- consumers are not going to be
ing become a real product. "To be clamoring for this product.
able to provide a whole new range
Says James McQuivey, an anaof service on top of an already lyst with Forrester Research,
deployed consumer electronics Cambridge, Mass.: "The future
product is really cool," Sirius's of video in the automobile is
Smith says. "If you look at the on-demand; it isn't broadcast.
amount of technology we devel- Broadcast may be a temporary
oped, what it took to get that tech- blip, but eventually you will have
nology into silicon, and all the what you want to watch in your car
quality gates that the automotive when you want to watch it, whether
industry requires you go through, it comes by shiny disk or iPod or
I think we've turned this around in wireless connection. You won't
an impressive time."
be watching whatever someone is
The initial customer response willing to broadcast to you."
seems positive, if mildly so. Mike
Thilo Koslowski, lead autoK a ne, Chr ysler 's d i rector of motive analyst and a vice presiwhat the exPerts say

"low-bandwidth satellite-video-subscription
services with a small demographic, few channels,
and high initial cost seem doomed to failure. on
the bright side, adding video to satellite radio will
permit measurement of whether losses escalate
linearly or are a function of broadcast bandwidth."
-Nick Tredennick

advanced technology strategy,
says that 20 percent of the Town &
Country minivans now rolling off
the assembly line have Backseat TV
installed; for comparison, about
35 percent of buyers have purchased the DVD-only entertainment system in the past. But for
soccer moms, the product's main
audience, Backseat TV ain't the
only game in town. And Backseat
TV doesn't appear to be the game
soccer moms want to play. In fact,
some seem downright hostile.
"If it were free and came stan-

dent with Stamford, Conn.-based
Gartner, does not see Backseat
TV as a compelling product in
a world with many on-demand
video options. But Koslowski
commends Sirius for innovating,
because innovation in satellite
radio has been a pretty rare commodity for a while.
He says, it would have been a
really bad idea for the company to
pull the plug on the project after
talking about it for so long. And
Sirius did prove that, indeed, even
far-out demos can come true. ❑
www.spectrum.ieee.org

http://spectrum.ieee.org/ http://www.sirius.com/backseattv http://www.spectrum.ieee.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum January, 2008