The Digital Radio Broadcast Subcommittee of the National Radio Systems Committee met at the CES show. The group is tweaking a 50+ page document on IBOC measurement.
The idea is to have everyone measure digital signal in the same manner; right now, engineers are doing their best but there’s no uniform measurement procedures, NRSC Chairman Milford Smith tells me.
The group is targeting the spring NAB show for completing the document.
Also, the RDBS Subcommittee is being taken out of mothballs and has a new chairman, Barry Thomas of Lincoln Financial, who’s also president of the SBE.
You’ll recall the group was placed on hiatus a while back after chairman Allen Hartle stepped down. The group is becoming active again because it’s likely the U.S. RDBS standard will need to be re-done, following Europe’s enhancements, namely “RDS Plus,” which enables the receiver to display text in a more logical fashion.
Thomas says the subcom will evaluate new RDS standards to be included in the NRSC RBDS standard. He’s working out the agenda for the next meeting; the date hasn’t yet been set.
