PRESS RELEASE
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The BBC World Service The Voice of America
Radio France Internationale Deutsche Welle
Radio Canada International Radio Australia International
Radio Austria International PRS Corporation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 2, 1995
Paving the Way for a
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New World Standard for Shortwave Broadcasting
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Several of the major international shortwave broadcasters and
receiver manufacturers of the world met last month in Hong Kong for the
ID LOGIC Shortwave Conference convened jointly by the BBC World Service
and PRS Corporation.
At issue was the development of a new coding standard for digital
signals used in shortwave broadcasting and receivers which will bring ease
of use to the shortwave listeners worldwide.
The coding standard agreed to, coupled with the in-receiver
database technology developed by PRS Corporation, will allow broadcasters
to send their frequency schedules in digital format over the air to
in-receiver memory banks. This will permit listeners to tune to their
desired broadcaster and programming language at the touch of a button.
The broadcast schedules will contain all the necessary information
such as frequencies, broadcast time and days, languages, target areas
and the like.
A Shortwave Revolution
----------------------
ID LOGIC SW will make shortwave listening user-friendly, for the
first time ever. Gordon Harold, former Chief Engineer of the BBC World
Service said that "ID LOGIC could transform and revitalise shortwave
listening around the world", and Jacques Bouliane, Director of Engineering
of Radio Canada International has said the technology "can give a second
youth to shortwave broadcasting." Jean-Marc de Felice, Technical Director
of Radio France Internationale, believes that "this new technology,
applied globally, could considerably facilitate the reception of
international broadcasts."
The advantages of ID LOGIC SW will be evident to anyone who has
tried to tune to shortwave broadcasts: It is notoriously difficult to
find a desired broadcast without the help of a frequency guide (which
tend to become out-of-date the day they leave the press.) This is due to
the fact that transmitter frequencies often do change according to region,
time of day, season, and occasionally, to overcome interference or jamming.
ID LOGIC SW overcomes these problems by having a database in the
receiver�s memory (which is updated by the broadcasters� themselves via
digital transmissions) and control software stored on a proprietary
microchip.
Two Modes of Transmission
-------------------------
ID LOGIC SW provides for two modes of transmissions - one audible,
the other silent. There are advantages to both methods and it was agreed
to use the same (base band) encoding method for both modes - thereby
simplifying the receiver design and cutting the retail cost to the consumer.
The base band encoding of the data will use the AMDS (Amplitude
Modulation Data System) format developed in Europe (a cousin of the RDS
system widely used there for digital data transmissions in FM broadcasts).
An early emphasis will be placed on the audible method as it
requires no special hardware installation at each transmitter site. In
this mode, it is envisaged that short bursts of digital transmissions
will be broadcast regularly; for example at the tail end of every hour
of vernacular programming. The data will be broadcast using a method such
as Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) which will sound somewhat akin to the
noise produced by a modem or fax. Using this audible method, transmission
speeds of 2400 bits per second are expected.
Although the data transmission rate in the silent mode will be
much slower (200 bits/sec), it will have the advantage of being continuous
and transparent to the listener, and it will provide online identification
of the transmissions. But this requires special hardware at each
broadcasting site and a somewhat more expensive implementation in the
receivers. Note that Deutsche Welle is already radiating scheduling
information, online identification and tuning data in the silent mode
from several shortwave transmitters.
ID LOGIC SW Consortium
----------------------
Present at the conference were most of the members of the
ID LOGIC SW Consortium, an informal group of shortwave broadcasters
which is formed by, and open to, all interested international shortwave
broadcasters. Represented were the BBC World Service, the Voice of
America, Radio France Internationale, Deutsche Welle, Radio Canada
International and PRS Corporation. Also present were delegates from
Philips, Sangean, and Sony.
The Consortium was initially formed in 1992 by the BBC World
Service, the Voice of America and PRS Corporation. In addition to those
mentioned above, it has also been joined since then by several other
international broadcasters.
ID LOGIC - A Mature Technology
------------------------------
ID LOGIC is a mature technology, the AM/FM form having already
been licensed to consumer electronics giants such as Sony, Panasonic,
Pioneer, Kenwood, Alpine, Sanyo, Clarion, JVC, and others, primarily
for car radios and most recently for in-personal computer receivers.
ID LOGIC car radios have been on sale in North America since
1990 and the award-winning technology was incorporated into the new
RBDS (Radio Broadcast Data System) U.S. standard issued by the National
Radio Systems Committee in 1993.
This system allows the listener to find a station by type of
music (format) and to automatically identify a station by name, format
and location. In its AM/FM implementation, the in-receiver database
contains the description of the 14,000+ North American radio stations
and according to Pierre Schwob, President of PRS Corporation, "it means
radio listeners driving, say, from Miami to Anchorage, Alaska, can set
their radio to pick up jazz stations automatically along the way. You
can set your receiver to any general classification such as Rock, or
you can be as specific as choosing between Southern Gospel, Christian
Gospel, Black Gospel or Religion."
Over-the-air Tests Planned for First Quarter 1995
-------------------------------------------------
A system that instantly finds the right service, the right
frequency and even the right language has an obvious appeal to shortwave
broadcasters. Similarly, radio manufacturers recognize the listener-appeal
of one-button shortwave selection that requires no knowledge of programme
schedules or other transmission variables.
Over-the-air tests are planned for the beginning of 1995 and one
can expect initial commercial implementations to follow in 1996.
Internet Availability
---------------------
An ID LOGIC Shortwave Simulator for Windows is available via
the Internet, either via anonymous ftp or the World Wide Web at the
following addresses:
WWW: http://www.hk.net/~prs/
ftp: ftp.hk.net (/shareware/prs/id_sw.zip)
For more details on ID LOGIC, please contact:
Pierre R. Schwob
PRS Corporation
Hong Kong office
Phone: +852-2543-7773
Fax: +852-2541-9843
Internet email: prs@prs.com
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