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BEC Session to Delve Into Receiver Technologies
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Radio receiver technologies will get some
scrutiny as part of the upcoming Broadcast Engineering Conference at the NAB Show.
Veteran engineer Glynn Walden of CBS Radio will lead this Monday afternoon
batch of presentations, including one that promises a way to improve HD Radio signal coverage.
“In-vehicle”
tech is the subject of the first presentation, in which Chia-Lin Simmons of
Harman International and Robert Acker of Aha will discuss “Three In-Car Trends Broadcasters
Need to Know About.” According to a summary, “The car will be just another
place consumers get the Internet entertainment they want. Consumers are
flocking more and more to the Internet for entertainment whether that is on
their home laptop or while walking with their phone. When they get in the car,
they want to access the same content. Coming down the pike will be the ability
for these consumers to access this content — but in a form that is right for
the road.”
Then an “RDS Station Workshop” will explore the
NRSC G300 RDS usage guidelines. Presenters here include Alan Jurison of Clear
Channel, who writes frequently about RDS in Radio World, and Barry Thomas of
Lincoln Financial Media.
That’s followed by “Adaptive
Impedance Matching (AIM) for Electrically Small Radio Receiver Antennas” by
Brian Kroeger, chief scientist for iBiquity Digital. He’ll discuss a technique
to overcome limitations of receiver tuner implementations, while promising
“superior performance with electrically small antennas.” AIM is described as an
adaptive feedback technique that attempts to maintain maximum signal gain at
the tuned frequency. “Resonant tuning of a high-Q preselection filter is
achieved using a signal metric from a baseband processor. As the received
signal level decreases (due to listener tuning, antenna orientation, human-body
effects, etc.), the baseband processor adaptively retunes the preselection
filter to provide maximum signal voltage to the low noise amplifier (LNA).”
Kroeger says AIM eliminates the need for receiver calibration associated with current
preselection filter tuning techniques, and is independent of the intermediate
frequency, since local oscillator tracking is not performed.
The Monday receiver session concludes with a discussion by Brana Vojcic
and Mark Fowler of Digital PowerRadio, who will talk about an approach they believe
will significantly improve the signal coverage radius and quality for FM and AM
HD Radio, “assuring improved reception and strong HD reception into smart
phones and other mobile and portable devices, as well as car and table top
radios.” This approach involves “only very feasible changes in the baseband
receiver chip in HD radio receivers.” They will also present improvements that
can be achieved by modified HD Radio air interfaces for systems that have not
yet been deployed, such as all-digital AM and FM radio.
Info: “Radio Receiver Technologies”
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