[BC] iBiquity was Digital Radio Express

[Phil Alexander]

On 8 May 2005 at 9:56, Ernie Belanger wrote:

> FCC will be and is being approached, by some of the big lambs like CPB and 
> Clear Channel, to adopt this as, a non-mandatory standard. By doing it this 
> way the standard goes on the books as The Digital Standard in the US but 
> stations are not made to adopt it. It will remain as a voluntary US 
> standard, like FM Stereo is (stations are not forced to broadcast in stereo 
> but if they do they must conform to the US FM Stereo Standard.
> 
> So if a station chooses to broadcast in Digital whenever they choose to do 
> so, it will have use the iBiquity system. 

This depends entirely on the set manufactureres. If they use chipsets made
for the world market, IOW IBOC/DRM capable, the only addition needed is
auto-sensing of format/protocol in a way that's transparent to the listener.

The argument for this is it is less expensive for T-I to build one chip
than two, and building in auto-sensing should be relatively trivial. If
this develops, then broadcasters would be free to use either IBOC or DRM
modulation.

> This is a blatant back door 
> government endorsement of a Monopoly but because it will be adopted as 
> voluntary it fits though the loophole. Stations are not being forced to 
> adopt it nor are they being forced to broadcast in digital.

If they market is controlled in such a way as to set up a de facto standard
with no alternative, the possibility of Court action looms large.

> The push for this will site 3 main points #1 there is no competing system, 

But there clearly is, and it's called DRM, which could also be the way
around some very challenging problems in the AM band for which Ibiquity
has yet to offer an effective solution IMHO.

> #2 the industry has already accepted this as a default standard (see #1) 

Because the FCC would permit only the use of the IBOC spec per Ibiquity
while the rulemaking continued.

> and 
> the FCC needs to take action to ensure receiver manufacturers will have the 
> proper motivation to make radios.

It is now possible to make radios that select the correct demodulation for
digital using more than one standard. The old AMS argument doesn't hold up.

Note that there are more similarities than differences in IBOC and DRM, and
that the DRM consortium recently announced they are extending the upper
frequency limit for DRM to 120 MHz.

In the end, the only thing proprietary to Ibiquity may be their codec.
None of this is cast in concrete until the rules are issued, and it is
important to recall that the NRSC stated goal for IBOC is that it is to
be an OPEN system.

I think you may find an article about this topic in the May edition of 
Radio Guide.


Phil Alexander, CSRE 
Broadcast Engineering Services and Technology 
(a Div. of Advanced Parts Corporation) 
Ph. (317) 335-2065   FAX (317) 335-9037




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