Agilent Technologies' HDMI Test Solution Chosen by Simplay Labs

The test center at Simplay Labs is designed to promote industry-wide interoperability among products using HDMI and High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), including HDTVs, DVD and Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, AV receivers, and HDMI cables. The test setups also help maximize the ability of such products to receive and play high-definition content. Simplay Labs, headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., provides technologies, testing programs, development tools, and interoperability and performance design standards for the high-definition (HD) consumer electronics industry.

Simplay chose Agilent's solution because of its superior signal integrity, reliability and repeatability, which provides more accurate and repeatable testing results to the device under test.

We are excited to expand our global testing capabilities within the China market to better serve our customer demand, said Joseph Lias, president of Simplay Labs, LLC. With Agilent's solution, we provide all accurate and repeatable results in a single report. We are committed to making it easy for manufacturers throughout the world to have their products HDMI ATC and Simplay HD-tested. Only the Simplay HD mark gives a consumer confidence in a consistent 'plug-and-play' user experience.

In addition to the Agilent Infiniium 90000A Series oscilloscopes with the N5399A compliance test software, Simplay Labs chose Agilent's N5998A protocol/audio/video generator and analyzer, the 81250A ParBERT based E4887A TMDS signal generator with cable emulators, the N1080A test point access assemblies/fixtures, the E5071C network analyzer and the N5990A test automation software platform for use in its testing labs.

Agilent Infiniium oscilloscopes offer the world's deepest acquisition memory and the world's first hardware/software integrated triggering system, InfiniiScan Plus. The Infiniium Series was designed to give engineers superior signal integrity, deep application analysis, and better insight into their designs.

The Agilent 81250A ParBERT based E4887A-007 HDMI TMDS signal generator platform provides in-depth characterization and compliance testing capabilities with up to 7 Gb/s data rate that can evolve to suit future test needs. It provides fully automated test with the N5990A test automation platform from Agilent's solution partner BitifEye. The standardized test reports allow comparison and exchange between the Authorized Test Center, research and development divisions, and all other users of the N5990A test automation software platform.

The majority of Authorized Test Centers use Agilent's E4887A-007 high-end TMDS signal generator solutions because of their full range of capabilities, performance and dedication in presenting industry-leading serial data generation and analysis test capabilities to accelerate HDMI 1.3 tests, said Siegfried Gross, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Digital Test Division.

The Agilent E5071C 4 ports vector network analyzer is included in CTS1.3c as recommended equipment to test the attenuation/crosstalk of HDMI cable.

The N5998A protocol/audio/video generator and analyzer is the reference high-speed protocol analyzer, video timing analyzer, video picture analyzer, audio timing analyzer and audio/video protocol generator for HDMI protocol compliance tests required by the compliance test specification (CTS 1.3c). The global HDMI authorized test centers (ATCs) rely on the N5998A.