ACCESS accelerates deployment of connected In-Vehicle Infotainment and Video services through integration with HARMAN Ignite Store

ACCESS Europe GmbH announced that the ACCESS Twine for Car solution (Twine4Car) has been integrated with the HARMAN Ignite Store. The collaboration provides automotive OEMs with a global portfolio of car-specific video services through the Twine4Car IVI platform. The solution is now ready to be deployed by HARMAN’s automotive customers.

The integration of Twine4Car with the HARMAN Ignite Store enables OEMs to transition car IVI from Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to a digital lifestyle environment of connected and cloud-enabled content and IVI services seamlessly integrated with the automotive systems, screens and speakers. Twine4Car includes a dedicated global connected content platform and services. The selection by HARMAN of ACCESS Twine4Car enables OEMs to bring the right content to their users, strengthening the customer relationship by providing the kinds of rich in-vehicle experiences consumers demand.

Michi Uematsu, CTO, ACCESS CO., LTD., said, “For over 70 years, drivers have enjoyed in-car music and radio; throughout this period, the only way for a car brand to differentiate the in-car entertainment experience was through the quality of sound. The connected car evolution changes that completely, and it does so at a time when the in-car entertainment experience has become a critical factor in the car-buying decision. The collaboration with HARMAN Ignite Store, the leading solution for in-vehicle app stores, is exciting for ACCESS. It’s even more important for the OEMs, who can gain enormous benefit from deeper driver and passenger relationships with their brand through compelling in-car experiences. Now, the car cockpit and rear seats will be like a mobile living room with large screens and amazing sound systems. We are very much looking forward to providing the best video content to automotive OEMs and car users, leveraging our global smart TV footprint.”

Albert Jordan, Vice President & GM, HARMAN Ignite Store business unit at HARMAN, said, “The trend in electrification and proliferation of screens in the car is creating a strong demand for video content in the car. We’re incredibly excited to collaborate with ACCESS to bring the video content that consumers demand into connected vehicles through the HARMAN Ignite Store. Now OEMs can engage their audiences more easily, drive new revenue streams through content services and, ultimately, build brand loyalty.”

With the HARMAN Ignite Store, the vehicle becomes an extension of the consumer’s digital lifestyle. It allows drivers to subscribe and install third-party apps as well as OEM-developed services, such as vehicle health and “Concierge Mode,” bringing everyday applications that we have at home and on our phones to the car.

ACCESS Twine for Car is a white label next-gen IVI platform. It enables automotive OEMs and Tier-1s to provide entertainment services including video, audio, live TV and games on the car head unit (HU), rear-seat entertainment devices (RSE) and Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD).

Key features of Twine4Car, include:

• A flexible solution that will work on any OS, including Android, Linux and QNX-based systems, and is pre-integrated with major DRM solutions and supports major standards such as BML, HbbTV, DVB, MPEG, etc.
• A technology platform that bridges the gap between the automotive and content industries and helps provide a great user experience for drivers and passengers of all ages.
• Twine4Car builds on ACCESS’ over ten years’ experience of supplying Smart TV app stores and the ACCESS heritage of having shipped software to over 1.5 billion CE devices.