PRESS RELEASE ------------- 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 ==================== New World Standard for Shortwave Broadcasting ============================================= 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It is notoriously difficult to find a desired broadcast without the help of a frequency guide (which tend to become out-of-date the day they leave the press.)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 *eof*