Radio service software

1998/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Materialak
• Patenteak/Asmakizunak
• Irudiak/Soinuak

Soon we can listen to radio broadcasts of the same sound quality as the CDs. Several Canadian and US radios have already started testing high-quality digital broadcasts. But since the special devices necessary to be able to tune them are very expensive, nobody wants to do them. Now, a British company has launched a much cheaper system that will turn a conventional PC into a digital radio receiver.

Europe has adopted a common model of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting), which is usually officially called digital radio. Chip signal processors that have used designs made for dab-s receivers for data decoding have been very expensive. Several companies have developed prototypes of digital car radios, the devices we need are very expensive and, for fear of failure, until now they have barely been commercialized.

Domestic receivers still go further: IDEO, an industrial design company contracted by BBK, has developed several digital radio designs, but there is no company to produce them.

RadioScape, a software company based in London, has discovered a solution to overcome the cost problem. Using the current ability to process PC Pentium chips, they have created software that performs the same work as the circuit on a digital radio.

The system developed by RadioScape takes the DAB signal from a normal VHF antenna and sends it to a decoding card included in the PC, such as a modem or a sound card. The dekodifier extracts the DAB data from the radio signals and processes the RadioScap software and sends the sound to the PC speakers. In addition to the sound, DAB emissions can emit every ten seconds text and an image that can be seen on the computer screen.

According to RadioScap, 133 Mhz. A Windows PC with Pentium MXX processor or higher can decode DAB information in real time. This will allow us to listen to the radio while doing other things, such as word processor or internet travel.

RadioScape has already shown a prototype for the work of its system in BBK, several commercial radios and even some computer companies. They intend to grant the license to electronics producers to turn it into a consumer product. They expect the first PC based tuner and software to be in Christmas stores. The next step would be to place the tuning circuit on a credit card sized PCMCIA card and connect it to a pocket computer to turn it into a portable digital radio.

The BBC has been testing digital radio since September 1995 and currently 60% of the population can receive these digital signals. British commercial radios expect the authorities to give them DBA licenses in September, when the British will have more than 30 digital channels. Other European countries will have a similar channel option.