[LAU] HD Radio broadcasts

Dan Easley daneasley at gmail.com
Tue Jan 15 09:42:35 EST 2008


On Jan 15, 2008 9:18 AM, The Other <sstubbs at shout.net> wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> What is HD radio?  A local radio station is advertising they are the
> first HD radio station in my listening area.  Is HD supposed to mean
> High Definition?

no, that's a clever rhetorical trick, meant to capitalize on the
success (?) of HDTV, which does, in fact, provide more dots.

> Now this make sense to me.  Rather than having a radio broadcasted
> recording go for "LOUD", the powers-that-be in radio broadcasting have
> finally discovered that the radio audience actually prefers to hear
> the subtlety in the music.

that's overly optimistic, and far from the mark.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radio

simply, it adds a few program streams to the broadcast by digitally
encoding and compressing (data-wise, not dynamically) them into the
unused bits of an AM/FM station's designated portion of spectrum.

this means that, instead of broadcasting one set of programs, a
station can broadcast two or three sets simultaneously.

it requires upgrades to the transmitters that cost major moolah, and
it requires a new receiver at home / in car / on person.

i'd be dumbfounded that the FCC went for a completely proprietary
system, if i weren't already so accustomed to consistently disagreeing
with their decisions.  unlicensed spectrum, such as the ranges used
for wifi and garage door openers, is where it's at.

> Took the powers-that-be long enough.  Now if they would just use the
> same techniques for television commercials.  I *hate* it when the
> commercial is louder than the television program.

i don't - the stupidly excessive dynamic compression of commercials is
one of the indicators do-it-yourself PVRs (mythtv, sagetv, etc.) use
to flag and remove commercial breaks for me.

big business' ways shall be their own undoing.  proceed as normally. :)

-- 
daneasley at gmail.com
http://burntpossum.com



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