RFID brings Hollywood safely into your living room - Siemens Business Services uses RFID to optimize the global delivery chain of TV receivers for Premiere

Munich, Oct 19, 2006 - In the future, new customers of the pay-TV broadcaster Premiere will be able to enjoy the latest movies with even more security. The receiver required for program reception will be fitted with an RFID chip enabling its entire delivery route to be tracked - from production in Asia right through to delivery at the customer’s front door. The solution is the result of a joint effort by Siemens Business Services and the logistics service provider Fiege Group. Every day, around 4,000 new TVs are equipped with the radio frequency identification tags.

With some ten million paying viewers in around 3.5 million households, Premiere is the leading subscriber broadcaster in Germany and Austria. In the past, reception of the encrypted program was ensured by means of a barcode fitted to the rear of the TV set. With this system, manual scanning of this barcode when televisions were delivered or returned and inventorying in the main warehouse were time-consuming and laborious.

In the future, RFID readers will be able to identify pallets with as many as 80 devices automatically and in seconds as they pass by. This is made possible by the installation of an RFID chip during the production phase on which, for example, the device number is stored and which will be recognized by the corresponding readers at any stage of the delivery chain: at the receiver manufacturer in East Asia, the Fiege logistics center in Erfurt, or the shipping agencies. The information on where a specific delivery is at any given time is collected in a central IT system. “Every user along the entire delivery chain is thus always in the picture as to where the delivery goods are,” explains Johannes Nordhaus, head of logistics at Premiere.

In addition to devising the overall solution, Siemens Business Services installed the RFID readers and runs the IT system where the data is collected and can be called up in its own data centers.

Siemens Business Services is an internationally leading IT service provider.
This Siemens Group offers services all along the entire value chain - from consulting to systems integration, right through to the management of IT infrastructures. Thanks to its comprehensive know-how and sector-specific expertise, the company provides measurable added value for its customers. With regard to outsourcing, Siemens Business Services is among the top ten providers worldwide. With around 39,000 employees, the Group posted sales in fiscal 2005 (ending 30 September 2005) of EUR 5.4 billion, 75 percent of which was achieved outside the Siemens organization. Further information at http://www.siemens.com/sbs.

Information number: SBS 191006.46e

Contact Information

Jörn Roggenbuck

Press Department Siemens Business Services

Siemens AG

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