The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS has announced that it is now offering a software package for car radios with a decoder for Digital Radio Mondiale, DRM+.
Fraunhofer’s new DRM software package is similar to what it previously established for the DAB standard. A central component of the DRM system is its baseband decoder, which coverts transmission signals from the broadcaster into digital streams. The system also has service decoders to represent text, images and other information, including the text information service Journaline. There is also an Emergency Warning Functionality as part of the DRM system.
“The radio manufacturers can build on a proven modular system, thus shortening their development times and, in turn, reducing their costs,” said Thomas Dettbarn, scientist at Fraunhofer. “This allows them to focus on integration and application development,” he said.
Ruxandra Obreja, DRM chairman, welcomes Fraunhofer’s announcement. “This gives a much awaited boost to DRM receivers in cars, speeding up the standard’s adoption,” she said. “It also allows car manufacturers to have a quick, easy, modular way to create the multi-standard digital platforms that are vital for widespread acceptance of digital radio across more than a handful of markets.”
