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Delphi & SIRIUS win PACE™

Delphi, teamed with SIRIUS Satellite Radio, wins Automotive News PACE™ (Premier Automotive Suppliers' Contribution to Excellence) Award.

Image of PACE Award

Winners are judged to be the best at creating innovative products and processes by a group of independent judges.

The Industry's Benchmark for Supplier Innovation

Delphi received the 2008 PACE Award in the "Information Technology and Services Category" for the hardware that enables SIRIUS Backseat TV offered in Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles. The PACE Award, known as the "Industry's Benchmark for Supplier Innovation," is awarded based upon four hallmarks that help determine whether an innovation—a product, process or service that rewrites the rules of the game—is really part of a continuous flow of transformation.

The hallmarks include:

  • The innovation hasn't been seen before
  • The innovation resulted in significant commercial or practical adoption and acceptance
  • The innovation and its commercial acceptance have changed the way people do business
  • The innovation transforms the company's business for the better

This is Delphi's 10th PACE award.

"It's important that Delphi has been recognized by these awards for our industry-leading technologies," said Jeff Owens, president of the Delphi Electronics and Safety division. "However, I think it's even more important that Delphi's employees are recognized for being the true innovators they are. It was especially gratifying to see the team members at the ceremony accept the honors they earned. Our employees continue to deliver innovation, quality and award-winning products, and I'm proud to be a part of this team.

"The Delphi/SIRIUS team was pleased to help Chrysler become 'first to market' with this innovative technology," Owens added.

Delphi's award was one of 14 PACE Awards presented during the 14th annual PACE Awards ceremony at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit on April 14. The winners were judged to be the best at creating innovative products and processes by a group of independent judges who chose the top 14 from among 23 finalists.

SIRIUS Backseat TV

Delphi earned its 2008 PACE Award for developing the in-vehicle satellite receiver and video decoder for the SIRIUS Backseat TV system, a dynamic and pioneering digital TV service that delivers content from TV programmers directly to vehicles, as part of the next wave of in-car entertainment. Delphi's goal was to use its recognized satellite radio expertise and an industry leadership position to deliver the first hardware for the first customer in North America.

Using the same spectrum allocation as satellite radio, a digital audio and video signal is sent to the vehicle, providing alternative entertainment options for passengers with three channels of family-oriented TV programming: Nickelodeon, The Disney Channel and Cartoon Network. This was accomplished with no reduction in the number of existing audio channels and no change in allocated bandwidth. The system's roof-mounted antenna measures 3-by-2-by-1-inch and was designed to complement vehicle styling.

SIRIUS Backseat TV can be viewed using the existing hardware and LCD screens that are part of factory-installed, in-vehicle video entertainment systems. It is subscription-based and requires basic SIRIUS audio service.

"The award is a great honor for Delphi," said Ken Erickson, Delphi executive in charge of the Entertainment & Communications product business unit. "We are extremely proud of the accomplishment that was achieved by effectively teaming with SIRIUS."

In their citation for the Delphi/SIRIUS award, the judges wrote: "The squeezing of video signals within Sirius' existing frequency spectrum allocation was accomplished through a bandwidth-efficient modulation innovation known as Backward Compatible Hierarchical Modulation or HM. This allowed an order of hierarchical modulation never seen before. It also enabled working with existing, installed repeaters, requiring only minor changes. The small in-vehicle receiver unit developed by Delphi requires only two small roof antennas, which have little impact on design or visibility."

Delphi has a long history of winning PACE Awards, earning its first for the Gen II manifold pressure sensor presented during the PACE event in 1996. The Automotive News PACE Awards honor superior innovation, technological advancement and business performance among automotive suppliers. The prestigious award is recognized around the world as the industry symbol of innovation. PACE award finalists have come from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Australia and Japan.

"SIRIUS" and related marks are trademarks of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.
PACE is a trademark of Automotive News.

 
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