Hisense R&D (Research and Development)

Headquartered in the beautiful coastal city of Qingdao, the Hisense R&D Center covers 63 mu of land and a construction area of more than 60,000 square meters. It is a state-level enterprise and its technological center is recognized by the five government ministries, the national 863 industrial base and the software industrial base included in the country’s Torch Plan. The R&D entity combining production, study and research, is also the Hisense Research Institute of Shandong University, the carrier of all-round cooperation between large enterprises and key universities. Hisense became one of China’s first pilot enterprise R&D centers in the state innovation system in 2004.

 

The Hisense R&D Center has built a relatively ideal R&D platform system, including application base research center (digital multi-media technology key lab), product development center, public R&D support platform (testing center, pilot center, data information center, technological training and academic exchange center) and post-doctorate scientific research station. The center has been equipped with digital displays, intelligent multi-media, digital TV, optical projection, intelligent home appliance, mobile communications, intelligent transport, Internet safety, computer and opto-electronic communications. The center is also the technological R&D center of the Hisense computer, communications and consumer electronic industry and in charge of the R&D work of Hisense core and front-end technologies, development of new products, optimization of products and adjustment of product structure.

 

The center has employed more than 2,000 full-time technological developers, half of which have middle or senior technical titles. There are nearly 50 senior experts and doctors and more than 300 graduates, out of which 90 percent of the total are below the age of 40.

The Hisense Group has always been placing priority to R&D input, with R&D investment each year making up for more than 5 percent of product sales. It has set up the country’s first paper-less developing system based on the Intranet with more than 2,000 online microcomputers and over 50 computer aided design (CAD) stations. It has established labs for home appliances, air conditioners, communications technology, digital displaying technology, computers, Internet technology, intelligent research and craftwork design as well as function testing rooms and circuit CAD machinery rooms, all of which having reached state or international advanced standards in the lab environment. The labs are outfitted with hundreds of sets of devices, many of which fit international advanced levels. They are able to meet the needs of innovative developments, experimenting with and testing all kinds of products such as televisions, air conditioners, computers, fridges, Internet and communications products.

 

The center provides an international-level of developing and testing environment for researchers through information sharing and comprehensive resource use. It forges a solid foundation for the Hisense technological innovation and enables the Hisense Group to stay on the top level among its peers in terms of technologies. The center is engaged in dozens of state-level projects each year and has applied for more than 2,000 patents so far. The group completed the R&D of 537 new products and technologies in 2006, two thirds of which hold international advanced standards.

As technological innovation is based on talent collection and cultivation, Hisense has been sticking to the principle of putting the people first. With a human resource mechanism of seeking, using, cultivating, promoting and keeping talents, the group has improved the culture of attracting talents with payment, career prospects and a fun and learning atmosphere. It has also formed a good system of human resource development and management. The Hisense School in the center offers good conditions for knowledge seeking opportunities and development of researchers and developers with training fees nearing 10 million yuan each year.

Hisense aims to build a world-class R&D center and is heading towards the goal by relentlessly improving construction of R&D and innovation systems in recent years.

The Hisense R&D Center in Shunde was recognized as a state-level enterprise technological center in 2001 and it set up a post-doctorate scientific work station in 2002. It is also a state-level technological innovation base and an industrialization base in the 863 Plan. From 2002 to 2006, the Kelon Technical Center, the predecessor of the Shunde center, won 70 various awards for scientific progress, 25 of which were provincial or ministry-level. It undertook 86 planned scientific projects, among which 16 were state-level and 39 were ministry-level, and obtained 71 titles of key new products, five of which were state-level and 38 ministry-level. By the end of 2006, the center had applied for a total of 1,536 patents.

 

The Shunde center is the creator of core fridge technologies in China. The Ronshen fridge won the second-class state scientific progress award for Freon-free, power-saving technologies in 1996 and for modification of the production system of hydrocarbon substitutes for CFCs in 2000. In 2005, Hisense made a breakthrough in the core technology of vector frequency converter and rolled off line the country’s first fridge with such technology and 180-degree sine-wave control, reaching international advanced level in achieving the utmost energy efficiency and noise reduction. Now several of Hisense’s core technologies, such as the Kelon new-generation power-saving green blowing agent technology, independent-multi cycle technology and self-sensing energy-efficient fridge technology, are becoming the leading technologies in the world.

The Shunde center is devoted to high-efficient R&D, along with comfortable and power-saving fridge technologies. The Kelon air conditioner’s energy efficiency has broken domestic records three times and has hit the world record twice. The Hisense air conditioner’s frequency conversion is a world leading technology, gives the product a unique core technological advantage and has won China’s energy-efficiency contribution award several times
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The Hisense Shenzhen R&D center is located in the Langfeng Plaza at the central area of the Shenzhen Nanshan Scientific Garden. This area neighbors the R&D institutes of Skyworth, TCL, Changhong and Konka. The R&D institutes and offices of most transnational companies are also located at the same area, making technological cooperation and information exchange very convenient. The investment for the center totals about 10 million yuan, with 5 million invested in the preliminary phase. More investment will come in the later phase according to the Hisense Group’s strategic plans, newly-added product lines and market demand.

The center has more than 30 outstanding R&D staff members, first-class devices and equipments, and communicates technologies and information on the platform of the R&D headquarter. The staff functions as a team to ensure that staff quality and R&D ability are always on the top level. Meanwhile, the Shenzhen center has set up united labs with world famous companies such as MSTAR and MTK, to make products synchronous with the chip development and competitive with international industry giants.

The center is mainly in charge of developing digital TV and Internet products, collecting cutting-edge technological information, following and restoring new products of digital video type, providing technological support and product R&D for the Guangdong Hisense Multi-media Company and drawing excellent talents. It will gradually expand staff and product variety to keep the R&D scale growing by 30 percent every year.

The Hisense U.S. R&D Center is part of the Hisense global R&D network. It is dedicated to two aspects of consumer electronics: one is the investigation and pre-research of new products, the other is product quality improvement and cost control. In the first aspect, the center has set up a special team to study Internet television, wireless home link, multi-media entertaining center and new display parts. In the second aspect, it is devoted to studying improving high-contrast, high-definition picture quality, researching and using new materials, designing product appearance and new products and standardizing the complete-set platform. The center has close cooperation and exchanges with world leading companies, and it offers strong technological support for exploring the U.S. market for Hisense.

At present, the Hisense products have succeeded in entering the North American market. With its technical strength, the center is keeping Hisense products competitive and making them attractive to North American households.

Located in the beautiful eastern U.S. city of Chicago, the Hisense (U.S.) Optical Communications R&D Center was built in July 2002. With a strong staff in the North American optical communications industry, the center has developed equipment with a velocity up to 40G bits per second. It exerts to provide leading optical communications module products and schemes at the vantage point of global optical communications technologies. Since its establishment, the center has completed the R&D of the internationally advanced SFF/SFP/XFP small-sized integrated optical transceiver modules, which have a product velocity ranging from 100M bits to 10 G bits per second. The modules became the technical incubator for the Qingdao Hisense Opto-electrical Scientific Company, laying good foundation for the development of the Hisense optical communications industry. Especially in terms of the PON products, the center beat other world competitors to work out the GPON solution in 2006, won market and customer recognition and soon took the U.S. market.

The Hisense optical communications industry is taking off rapidly and the center will continue to make efforts to lead the industry to new horizons.

The Hisense European R&D Center was set up in March 2007. At present, the center has R&D posts such as circuit designer, software designer, structure designer, product manager and ID style designer. The company is expected to recruit about 20 by the end of 2007 with 30 percent of them being foreigners.

The center will make full use of Hisense’s technical advantages in fields of digital TV, Internet multi-media, chip and digital house. It will fully investigate the latest technical developing trends, the European fashion, customer habits and demand to develop high-tech, economy digital DVB products as well as Internet, high-definition and multi-media flat TV sets for the European and similar markets. At the same time, the center will conduct spot tests and customer experience trials to tailor-make high-class products for European customers according to the different standards in Europe’s various regions. It will also study the latest international technologies and product trends and cooperate with world famous ID style designing companies for world-class designs to forge the international brand image of Hisense in an all-round way.

The establishment of the European center has enabled Hisense to make a strategic layout integrating R&D, production and sale in the European market, which takes up more than a fourth of the global TV sales.

Hisense S.A. Development Enterprise (Pty) Ltd. is the largest overseas company under the Hisense group. Its production facility is based in Midrand High-tech Park in Johannesburg. The premises cover an area of over 21,000 square meters and the facility is greater than 8,000 square meters. Its products scope includes: color TVs, DVDs, digital audio-visual products, refrigerators, air-conditioners, microwave ovens and washing machines. Presently, the company’s marketing, logistics and after-sales service network covers the whole country and its products are distributed to more than 3,000 chain stores and 500 plus home appliance franchised stores. In addition, its products are exported to 10 plus countries in the peripheral regions including Swaziland, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana .and Lesotho. Hisense brand is a famous brand in South Africa. Today, Hisense SA is winning over more and more consumers with its quality products, reasonable pricing and excellent after-sales service. is the largest overseas company under the Hisense group. Its production facility is based in Midrand High-tech Park in Johannesburg. The premises cover an area of over 21,000 square meters and the facility is greater than 8,000 square meters. Its products scope includes: color TVs, DVDs, digital audio-visual products, refrigerators, air-conditioners, microwave ovens and washing machines. Presently, the company’s marketing, logistics and after-sales service network covers the whole country and its products are distributed to more than 3,000 chain stores and 500 plus home appliance franchised stores. In addition, its products are exported to 10 plus countries in the peripheral regions including Swaziland, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana .and Lesotho. Hisense brand is a famous brand in South Africa. Today, Hisense SA is winning over more and more consumers with its quality products, reasonable pricing and excellent after-sales service.