Irvine-based Broadcom Corp., which is set to be acquired for $37 billion by Avago Technologies Ltd., is making a big push in China through strategic partnerships with some of the country’s most influential players.
Broadcom announced three memorandums of understanding—the first stage of a formal contract—with Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., a leading IT provider; Shandong-based systems integrator Inspur Group; and Beijing-based cable provider StarTimes.
The chipmaker is collaborating with Hangzhou to integrate cloud and online services; boosting innovation in Ultra-HD set-top boxes with Inspur; and jointly designing and developing low-cost set-top boxes and high-end Ultra HD chips with StarTimes for the Africa market.
The deals were signed at Broadcom’s recently concluded annual Asia Media Summit in Beijing.
Broadcom has old ties in the China market through its broad chip offerings that enable smartphone communication, the Internet of Things, connected vehicles, wearables, broadband and telecom.
A set of deals in 2012 with Shenzhen-based ZTE Corp., China’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., a rising smartphone maker that sold a reported 75 million units last year, were estimated to add at least $900 million per year in revenue for Broadcom, according to FBR Capital Markets Corp. analysts.
NextVR at U.S. Open
Laguna Beach startup NextVR Inc. provided the technology to power the first live multicamera virtual reality broadcast at the U.S. Open in a partnership with Fox Sports.
More than 100 fans per day at designated VIP tents watched the live virtual stream taken from five camera rigs at premium vantage points on the difficult course at Chambers Bay outside of Seattle. The footage immersed viewers in the putting greens, sand traps and fairways in real time while it live-streamed to Fox Sports locations in Los Angeles, New York and Vancouver.
U.S. Open highlights—including Dustin Johnson’s three-put finish that gave 21-year-old sensation Jordan Spieth his second major win this year in as many tries—and other content will go on the NextVR portal, which will be available using virtual reality devices from Oculus, Samsung, Sony and others.
This builds on a growing partnership with Fox that began in March on a virtual reality test at a Nascar Sprint Cup Series race at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.
The NextVR broadcast went off without a hitch, though Fox was widely criticized for its inaugural U.S. Open broadcast.
Study Shows Stressed Water Sources
A third of the world’s biggest ground water basins are distressed, according to a new study by researchers at University of California-Irvine using data from NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites.
The findings, published in “Water Resources Research,” show eight of the planet’s 37 largest aquifers are overstressed, with no natural replenishment, and another five, including California’s Central Valley, are highly stressed, with some water flowing back into them.
The Orange County Water District, which manages a vast ground water basin that runs from Seal Beach east to the Anaheim area and as far south as the Huntington Beach-Newport Beach border, supplies water to more than 20 cities and water agencies serving more than 2.3 million residents.
