1st Edition

The Broadcaster's Guide to RBDS

By Scott Wright Copyright 1997
    216 Pages
    by Routledge

    216 Pages
    by Routledge

    This handbook is intended to give the broadcast industry an authoritative guide to the Radio Data System (RDS), also called Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS). Since the standard's adoption, about 700 stations have begun broadcasting RDS in the United States. There is a wide variety of encoding equipment with prices starting as low as $400, and over 30 models of RDS receivers have been introduced for
    cars, home receivers, portable and even PC receivers. Automobile manufacturer's such as General Motors, Ford, Audi, and Porsch now offer RDS on new vehicles. Yet despite all the support equipment in place, the FM broadcaster has been reluctant to implement and utilize this service, mainly because of a lack of understanding of what RDS can do for the station.

    This book finally provides the information required to understand RDS and its possibilities on a variety of levels, so that everyone involved in radio can make the most of it. Station owner, program director, salesperson, and talent alike will find the information he or she requires to maximize the possibilities of this new technology.

    Each feature of the system is explained in terms of its practical implementation at the station, and interviews with broadcasters currently using the system add a hands-on perspective.

    INTRODUCTION 1-WHAT IS RDS, OR RBDS, OR SMART RADIO?; WHY SHOULD I IMPLEMENT RDS'WHAT ARE THE RDS FEATURES?;Listener Features ;Data Related Features; Other Advantages of RDS; THE IMPORTANCE OF STANDARDIZATION 2-GENERAL MANAGERS OVERVIEW; FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS; RDS IS DIFFERENT THAN ANY OTHER SUBCARRIER; DO I HAVE TO GIVE UP AN EXISTING SUBCARRIER TO TRANSMIT RDS?; CONCLUSIONS; 3-SUMMARY OF CHANGES IN THE NEW STANDARD;PROGRAM TYPE NAME (PTYN;FAST
    PROGRAM SERVICE (PS) NAME; LOCATION AND NAVIGATION (LN); OPEN DATA APPLICATIONS (ODA; ENHANCED RADIOPAGING; LANGUAGE IDENTIFICATION; DECODER IDENTIFICATION (DI; EXTENDED COUNTRY CODES (ECC; PROGRAM IDENTIFICATION (PI) CODES; ANALOG SCA CROSS REFERENCING; ID LOGIC RDS (IRDS) UPDATING; PTY CODE TABLE; DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RDS AND RBDS; SUMMARY OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RDS AND RBDS; 4-RDS VERSUS COMPETING
    SUBCARRIER TECHNOLOGIES; THE RDS SUBCARRIER;LEASING YOUR RDS SUBCARRIER;MBS/MMBS PAGING SYSTEM; Other factors involving MMBS; 5-REGULATION OF THE RBDS STANDARD; THE NRSC RBDS SUBCOMMITTEE; THE RDS STANDARD; THE RDS FORUM; CONSUMER ELECTRONIC MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION (CEMA; THE RDS ADVISORY GROUP; FCC RULES CONCERNING SUBCARRIER USAGE;
    LEARNING MORE; 6-CONSUMER; RECEIVERS; CONSUMER RDS FEATURES; SELECTING AN RDS RECEIVER; PARAMETRIC MEASUREMENTS OF RDS PERFORMANCE; RECEIVER OPERATION; Alternate Frequency Selection; Judging the quality of the AF feature; Receiver Memory; Program Identification Search; AF or RDS?; Radiotext; Operation; Traffic Announcements; Traffic Announcement Volume; Operation during an announcement; Program Type Mode; Program Type; Watch or Interrupt Mode; Program Type Name (PTYN) display; Emergency; Warning Feature; HOME RECEIVERS; 7-PROGRAM IDENTIFICATION CODES AND EXTENDED COUNTRY CODES; DETERMINING THE PI CODE FOR YOUR STATION; Exceptions to the calculated PI codes; CHOOSING
    A PI CODE FOR STATIONS CARRYING IDENTICAL PROGRAMMING; CHOOSING A PI CODE FOR NATIONALLY OR REGIONALLY LINKED RADIO STATIONS; How regional PI codes are utilized;How consumer receivers utilize regional PI codes; A NETWORK STUDY - THE CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION; Multiple regional programs; PI CODES FOR CANADA AND MEXICO; EXTENDED COUNTRY CODES; Location of Extended Country Codes; 8 PROGRAM SERVICE NAME; MARKETING YOUR STATION THROUGH THE PS FEATURE; HOW THE PS INTERACTS WITH OTHER RDS FEATURES;RULES FOR IMPLEMENTING THE PS FEATURE; CHOOSING A PS; CHARACTER LIMITATIONS; 9 PROGRAM TYPE AND
    PROGRAM TYPE NAME; HOW TO USE THE PTY FEATURE; SPECIAL PTY CODES; NEWLY DEFINED PTY CODES; HOW AN RDS RECEIVER USES THE PTY FEATURE; Program Type Seek or Search Mode;Program Type Watch or Interrupt Mode; Program Type 31, Alert mode;THE DYNAMIC PTY INDICATOR; LIMITATIONS OF THE PTY FEATURE;THE PROGRAM TYPE NAME (PTYN) FEATURE; Rules for use of the PTYN feature; How the PTYN feature is utilized in receivers 10-RADIOTEXT TRANSMISSION; HOW RADIOTEXT IS TRANSMITTED; THE TEXT A/B FLAG;HOW FAST CAN TEXT MESSAGES BE CHANGED?; 11-CONSIDERATIONS WHEN TRANSMITTING TEXT; DISPLAY SIZE CHARACTER GENERATION; DISPLAY TYPES; 12-IMPLEMENTING TRAFFIC SERVICES
    THROUGH RDS;OVERVIEW; ONE BIT, TWO BITS, THAT ALL IT TAKES; THE TRAFFIC PROGRAM (TP) BIT; THE TRAFFIC ANNOUNCEMENT (TA) BIT; SPONSORED TRAFFIC; SETTING THE TP AND TA BITS ON THE RDS ENCODER; REMOTE TRAFFIC FEEDS; SHARING TRAFFIC INFORMATION THROUGH THE ENHANCED OTHER NETWORK FEATURE; EON Traffic - A case scenario; Setting up the RDS EON feature; Automation requirements for EON traffic; Providing localized traffic announcements; Providing local and localized traffic information via EON; 13-ALTERNATE FREQUENCY FEATURE; DESIGNING AN AF TRANSMITTER NETWORK;COVERAGE OVERLAP;TRANSMITTER CONFIGURATION; PARTIAL SIMULCAST NETWORKS;Case 1- Static, identical RDS data; Case 2 - Static RDS data with differing program service (PS) names; Case 3 - Regional Variant PI codes;Utilizing the regional variant feature;Utilizing regional variants with loosely affiliated networks; National Public Radio; Syndicated programs; Case 4 Linking stations with differing PI codes; EXTENDED GENERIC LINKAGE (EGL; CODING OF ALTERNATIVE FREQUENCIES; AF CODE TABLES AND SPECIAL MEANINGS; 14-ENHANCED OTHER NETWORKS(EON); 15-OTHER RDS FEATURES; MUSIC/SPEECH
    (M/S) SWITCH CODE; DECODER IDENTIFICATION AND DYNAMIC PTY INDICATOR / DI CODES; PROGRAM ITEM NUMBER (PIN) CODES; LANGUAGE IDENTIFICATION RDS AND THE EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM (EAS; AM RDS; ID LOGIC AND IRDS UPDATING; 16-OPEN DATA CHANNEL;USE OF OPEN DATA APPLICATIONS; APPLICATION IDENTIFICATION FOR OPEN DATA; APPLICATION DATA GROUPS;
    OPEN DATA APPLICATIONS - GROUP STRUCTURE; Choosing the proper data group for your application;LOCATING YOUR ODA;MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS; APPLYING FOR AN APPLICATION IDENTIFICATION CODE;DATA RECEIVERS; 17- RDS GROUP STRUCTURE; INFORMATION WORD; CHECKWORD AND OFFSET WORD; SYNCHRONIZATION OF BLOCKS AND GROUPS; GROUP STRUCTURE; RDS GROUP TYPES;GROUP REPETITION RATES; 18 RDS DATA GROUP CODING;CONSUMER RECEIVER ORIENTED APPLICATIONS; Type 0 groups: Basic tuning and switching information; Type 1 groups: Program Item Number and slow labeling codes; Type 2 groups: Radiotext; Type 4A groups : Clock-time and date; Type 10A groups: Program Type Name;Type 14 groups: Enhanced Other Networks information; Type 15A groups;Type 15B groups: Fast basic tuning and switching information; SERVICE ORIENTED DATA GROUPS; Type 8A groups: Traffic Message Channel or ODA; Type 9A groups: Emergency warning systems or ODA; Type 7A group: Radio Paging or ODA; Type 13A groups: Enhanced Radio Paging or ODA;DATA TRANSMISSION; Type 5 groups: Transparent data channels or ODA; Type 6 groups: In-house applications or ODA; Open data applications;
    Type 3A groups: Application identification for Open data; Open data
    application data groups; Open Data Applications - Group structure;
    19-RDS BROADCAST EQUIPMENT; BROADCAST RDS ENCODERS; STATIC VERSUS DYNAMIC RDS DATA; COMMUNICATING WITH ENCODERS - THE UNIVERSAL ENCODER PROTOCOL (UECP); SUBCARRIER FREQUENCY; PHASE ADJUSTMENT; INJECTION ADJUSTMENT; A case study on RDS injection levels; MONITORING RDS BROADCASTS; 20-LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS; 21-GLOSSARY OF TERMS; BIBLIOGRAPHY

    Biography

    Scott Wright