Lucent and Digital Radio News:
B: Lucent Digital Radio Announces Testing Agreement With Cut
B: Lucent Digital Radio Announces Testing Agreement With Cutting Edge; Will
Test the Lucent Perceptual Audio Coder, PAC, in Studio Applications
WARREN, N.J., Aug 16, 1999 (BUSINESS WIRE via COMTEX) -- Lucent
Digital Radio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lucent Technologies (NYSE:
LU), has announced a joint testing agreement with Cutting Edge, a Telos
company, in which the Lucent Perceptual Audio Coder(TM) (PAC(TM)), the
industry's leading audio coder, will be tested with Cutting Edge's
Omnia line of audio processors.
The tests will commence immediately and will be conducted at both
Lucent Digital Radio's facilities and at commercial radio stations.
Lucent Digital Radio's In-Band On Channel (IBOC) Digital Audio
Broadcast (DAB) system, which uses PAC to encode the audio from a radio
station, is currently being field tested. The Lucent Digital Radio IBOC
system is designed as an end-to-end solution that will enable broadcast
stations to seamlessly convert to an all-digital AM or FM broadcast
scheme.
"Cutting Edge delivers first-class audio processing solutions for radio
broadcasters worldwide today, and they represent an ideal testing
partner for our PAC coder," said Suren Pai, president of Lucent Digital
Radio. "We want to demonstrate that PAC, an important component of our
IBOC DAB system, will work seamlessly with audio equipment to produce
vastly improved sound for tomorrow's digital radio stations."
Lucent Digital Radio recently conducted tests of its IBOC FM system on
National Public Radio (NPR) member station WBJB-FM. These tests were
the first time that an IBOC system successfully passed a hybrid (both
analog and digital) signal over a radio station's antenna and
transmitter without affecting the host analog signal.
"DAB will offer broadcasters and listeners significant benefits over
existing broadcast methods, not the least of which is improved audio
quality," commented Michael Dosch, Managing Director of Telos
Systems/Cutting Edge. "We look forward to helping the radio industry
define and implement future standards forDAB."
Lucent Digital Radio will conduct a live listening demonstration of the
Lucent PAC coder passing through a Cutting Edge Omnia audio processor
at its Booth no.751 at the NAB Radio Show in Orlando, FL, from August
31-September 2.
Lucent Digital Radio's IBOC DAB system is an enhancement to current
analog AM and FM radio broadcasting systems. It will provide greatly
enhanced sound quality for AM radio, CD-like quality for FM radio, as
well as interference-free reception and innovative new data services.
Lucent Digital Radio draws on several patented Lucent digital audio and
channel coding techniques that provide robust digital signal delivery
in an impaired broadcast channel, including Lucent's Perceptual Audio
Coder(TM) (PAC(TM)) technology, which delivers CD-like quality audio at
96 Kilobits per second; Unequal Error Protection, which prioritizes
information based on its impact to audio quality; and Multi-Streaming,
which provides for a more robust signal in an impaired channel.
The IBOC approach will allow broadcasters to introduce digital audio
programming to listeners on their current dial positions using existing
transmitters and antennas. IBOC DAB is both backward- and
forward-compatible: current AM/FM receivers will still be able to
receive the existing analog signals in the new system. When a station
elects to turn off the analog signal in the future, IBOC DAB-compatible
receivers will operate with the remaining all-digital signal.
Celebrating 10 years of leadership and excellence in the broadcast
community, Cutting Edge is world-renowned for its innovative digital
audio signal processing expertise. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio,
with additional offices in San Francisco and Freising, Germany, its
Omnia family of digital audio dynamics processors for FM, DAB, and the
Internet is setting new standards for audio quality in the broadcast
and Internet industries worldwide. For additional information about
Cutting Edge, please call (216) 241-3343 or browse www.nogrunge.com.
Lucent Digital Radio is a Lucent Technologies venture with a mission to
develop IBOC DAB technology for AM and FM broadcasting worldwide.
Lucent Digital Radio's IBOC system will be resistant to multipath and
other forms of interference that impair current analog transmissions.
For marketing or sales information about Lucent Digital Radio, please
contact William Casey, Director, Marketing & Sales, on 908-580-7008 or
williamcasey@lucent.com. Information is also available on the Web site
at www.lucent.com/ldr.
Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N. J., designs,
builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks,
communications systems and software, data networking systems, business
telephone systems and microelectronic components. Bell Labs is the
research and development arm for the company. For more information on
Lucent Technologies, visit the company's website at www.lucent.com.
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