Data and Audio Processing for Digital Radio

The proverbial chicken-and-egg debate applies to the emerging IBOC (In-Band On Channel) standard. Broadcasters and receiver manufacturers have dealt with this issue on other standards (e.g., Eureka 147 DAB); and while IBOC seems to have the two groups racing in parallel toward the creation of and receiving from IBOC transmissions, both will have to continue to rely on one another to make IBOC a success. Receivers will need to be available, cost-effective, portable (battery-operated), easy to design and flexible. Data transmission will transform radio into a multimedia device. Dealing with different types of data on the radio will be important for IBOC to reach its full potential. To deal with these issues, the correct IBOC digital radio platform must be chosen. It must have a clear roadmap to address cost and power issues, and it must enable the broadcast of a wide variety of data.