New car radio solution with multilingual support

Fraunhofer IIS presented the first DRM chip design for car radios. This car radio solution will enable drivers to select their preferred radio program from hundreds of different radio stations. However, it is something more than purely listening to favorite music: the new radio formats offer multilingual support to ethnic news or talk programs. In this way, drivers will get local news or may listen to programs in foreign languages – at any time and any place.

With the international CES exhibition in Las Vegas on January 6 - 9, 2005, the vision of Digital Radio Mondiale DRM car radios got one step closer to reality. Based on Philips‘ ”SAF7730” digital car radio platform, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS presented the first DRM implementation that seamlessly fits into today’s car radios. For the OEM, upgrading to the international DRM standard is just a matter of inserting a ”DRM module” into an existing connector slot. Initially, the ”DRM module” upgrade allows to differentiate products with minimum investment, risk and time to market. In the next stage, the evolving road maps with fully integrated ”DRM car radio chip sets” will lower the system cost further, completely inline with the requirements of the mass market.

The DRM standard applies the latest advanced audio coding algorithms for music and speech transmission – to provide FMlike sound quality at very limited bandwidth. DRM programs are digitally transmitted and highly compressed. Therefore, they may be stored on-the-fly in the car radio’s memory, to build up a personal music collection. In addition, DRM programs carry other types of multimedia content and information, including headline news or traffic and tourist information. This data is transmitted in the background and will be immediately available after one gets into the vehicle.

The technical solution presented for DRM car radios uses Philips’ ”SAF7730“ digital car radio platform. It is equipped with an integrated Philips tuner „TEF6730“ capable of digital AM and FM decoding and sound processing. The DRM decoder, based on the algorithms of the well known “Fraunhofer DRM Software Radio“, is integrated in hardware on a FPGA prototype. The decoding of data services runs on an ARM9 processor on the same prototype board. This processor is also used for audio and speech decoding, employing the decoder libraries from Coding Technologies.

Broadcasters will benefit from this Digital Radio Mondiale DRM solution for car radios: DRM provides broadcasters with additional spectrum in the AM bands. The fact that it is easy and cost-efficient to bring DRM programs on air enables established stations to broaden their coverage area. Moreover, it opens opportunities to newcomers and innovative content providers to bring in more program diversity to reach their specific audiences.

Source: Fraunhofer Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen (IIS)

Related stories:

SanDisk Announces 'Sansa Clip': a Tiny, Wearable MP3 Player
SanDisk Corporation, the second largest seller of MP3 players in the United States, today introduced the colorful Sansa Clip, a tiny MP3 player that boasts an array of cool features, as well as distinctively big sound for its small size.
MySpace 'MyStores' Tie Bands Closer to Community
Word of an announcement from SNOCAP, the music technology/online distribution company, was brewing earlier this week, and today they finally let the cat out of the bag: SNOCAP is working with record labels like SubPop to power "MyStores," the company's tool that allows people to buy music directly from MySpace band pages.
Bill tackles so-called new piracy frontier
A new House bill seeks to further protect the music industry from piracy by limiting the ability to record digital radio broadcasts, singling out satellite radio industry competitors XM Radio and Sirius.
Research for a multimedia lifestyle
Listening, viewing, mobile activity – nearly everybody uses digital technology every day without even realizing. At the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin, researchers present the latest developments in picture and sound quality and almost unbounded access to information.
Philips announces availability of first GSM/GPRS/EDGE handsets based on Nexperia Cellular System
Samsung handsets are now available

Royal Philips Electronics today announced the mass production of the world's first EDGE cellular system solution. Philips' Nexperia Cellular System Solution 6100 family will be available in mobile handsets from Samsung.
Has Digg Dug a Legal Hole for Itself?
Call it the Internet's version of a bloodless coup. A revolt by users of Digg.com led the administrators of the Web site to reverse a decision to remove stories containing code used to circumvent digital rights management for HD-DVDs.
HANA Living-Room Network Spec Due This Year
On Maui, the 68-mile Hana highway often takes several hours to complete. The road toward the HANA home-networking spec appears just as grueling. The promise? Just one remote control. Really.
Jobs Says Apple Customers Not into Renting Music
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs indicates he is unlikely to give in to calls from the music industry to add a subscription-based model to Apple's wildly popular iTunes online music store.

News discussion:

General Science news