NRSC: New Ibiquity Codec Performs Well

Tests of Ibiquity’s AM and FM IBOC systems using its new codec, HDC, prove its performance is up to snuff. That’s according to an evaluation working group of the DAB Subcommittee of the National Radio Systems Committee. Led by IBB’s Dr. Don Messer, he states in a letter to the NRSC, “The EWG is pleased to report that the HD Radio system, with the incorporation of the Gen 3 audio codec, meets the NRSC’s goals and objectives for the introduction and use of digital radio in the FM and AM bands in the U.S. by providing a digital signal with significantly improved audio quality over AM and FM systems that presently exist in the United States.”
DAB Subcommittee Chairman Milford Smith tells RW Online, “What we were trying to do was make the HDC jump the same hurdles the other two (codecs) have jumped.”
The group previously evaluated Ibiquty’s tests on PAC, and earlier, MPEG 2.
The point of the tests was to determine the unimpaired audio quality of Ibiquity’s AM and FM IBOC Gen 3 systems using the HDC audio coding, and to confirm that the Gen 3 hardware performs similarly to the previous (Gen 1) version of the systems.
The NRSC has filed its report on Gen 3 tests with the FCC. Members continue working on the technical details of the DAB transmission standard they hope will form the basis of the commission’s permanent rules authorizing IBOC.