1. Home
  2. Electronics Design
  3. HD Radio Question

HD Radio Question

I've got a question about HD radio, or more accurately HD radio capabilities.

The digital radio systems currently being advertised (based on Ibiquity's technology) are capable of multiplexing several audio program streams plus other digital data on one FM broadcast channel. One popular(?) use of this is to include a text stream with the audio with the station call letters, program description, current content (song and artist) and advertising messages.

However, this last capability isn't really new. A friend of mine has a '92 Audi with a Bose sound system. It has the same capability, at least with respect to the text messages. This predates the Ibiquity system by quite a few years. In addition, I took a peek at his owners manual (there's a separate Bose sound system manual for the car) and there is no mention of Ibiquity or HD radio. Oddly enough, there isn't even a mention of the text capability at all. According to my friend, its always done that and it works on about half of the FM stations in the Seattle area.

Is there some other standard (other than HD) for broadcasting program text along with the audio?

And what would motivate Bose to skip the description of such a feature in their manual?

--
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
It\'s easier said than done.
... and if you don\'t believe it, try proving that it\'s easier done than
said, and you\'ll see that it\'s easier said that `it\'s easier done than
said\' than it is done, which really proves that it\'s easier said than
done.
Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.
Loading thread data ...

Hello Paul,

Can't speak about the digital radio standards because it never interested me. IMHO mankind doesn't need it so urgently . Neither do we need digital TV .

In Europe that has been around for a long time on FM. My Audi over there displayed stuff on its LCD. I never looked much but supposedly that was the station ID and other things. When I bought the car I almost stalled it at the gate of the dealer's lot which would have been embarrassing. The reason was that the radio came on by itself and announced some traffic jam on a nearby Autobahn, then turned itself on again. I thought someone was in the back seat. Then I asked a neighbor how I could turn that off. "Where did you live the last 10 years?" he asked.

Anyway, it's called Radio Data System (RDS) and you could start here:

formatting link

The radio was from Blaupunkt and their explanations start here:

formatting link

Regards, Joerg

formatting link

Reply to
Joerg

Ah yes ... RDS. I experienced it back in 1981, in my German girl friend's car. It was nice to know about the traffic "marmalade" - mixed-up-German for "jam" ;-) - near Muenchen, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Frankfurt and other large cities, before we got to them, but when the announcements interrupted our music cassette too often it got annoying.

--
Michael
Reply to
Michael

Hello Michael,

car.

cassette

Also, it is usually too late. Once they announce the traffic jam you are mostly already in it. Sometimes they use slang. For example, around Duesseldorf they might mention dense traffic at the "Moersenbroicher Ei". Only hardcore locals know where that is.

Where RDS can save lives is when they announce wrong way drivers on the autobahns. I could also imagine it being quite useful in amber alert situations.

I don't know whether RDS has been linked to some GPS units already. That could benefit high-mileage drivers in giving them alternate routes visually.

Regards, Joerg

formatting link

Reply to
Joerg

Thanks. That seems to fit what I've seen. We don't have any traffic warning systems tied in to this in my area, so all it displays is the station call sign, program type, artist name, etc.

I'm familiar with some of the advanced teletext (or whatever they call them) features of European TV, so it doesn't surprise me to see this on a high end European car radio. It also doesn't surprise me to see the eventual American version of this system come as a proprietary, sole source licensed technology. Expensive as well.

--
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
I didn\'t do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can\'t prove anything.
			- Bart Simpson
Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Nah, you don't need body armor. I've worked commercial TV since 1976 and the feeds in the studio and from the networks blew away what you got at home, particularly if you got to see serial digital or lowly analog component. NOT ANY MORE !! Just getting rid of the noise/ringing/smearing/color space limits is a MASSIVE improvement. Granted, the shows still leave lots to be desired but they sure look good. You'll see colors like never before. I'm not much of a sports fan but football games are really impressive.

GG

Reply to
Glenn Gundlach

They also use it for advertisements. Imagine driving your car watching your radio for a Pespi commercial to scroll by. I've never understood why that wasn't banned immediately.

--DF

Reply to
Deefoo

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.