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FAQ
RadioScape – the company
RadioScape plc is a British company that was founded in 1996 by Peter Florence and Gavin Ferris. It is a global operation with headquarters in London, England with offices in Hong Kong and representatives in Japan and Taiwan. Its R&D operations are in Slough, England and Hong Kong.
It is a privately held company and its investors include Royal Bank Ventures, Scottish Equity Partners, Atlas Venture, JAFCO, Texas Instruments, Yasuda Enterprise Development, iGlobe Partners, Psion and Arqiva.
What does RadioScape do?
RadioScape is the world leader in creating innovative Software Defined solutions for Digital Radio, including professional broadcast software, DAB/DRM chip design, DMB/Mobile TV and modules used in DAB/DRM radios. This puts RadioScape in a unique position of being the only provider of end-to-end Digital Radio solutions. This ensures that features introduced in the broadcasting work perfectly in the receivers, for example the inclusion of Conditional Access technology.
RadioScape has pioneered Software Defined solutions for Digital Radio. Its approach is to write all the functionality as software that is then run on a Texas Instruments' DSP chip. TI make these DSP chips by the million so unit costs for the hardware are kept low as it is not custom work and they are always readily available. This has resulted in RadioScape being the leading innovator in Digital Radio because software-based functionality can also be easily modified and enhanced to add new features or incorporate changes in standards. Other companies create specific integrated circuits (ICs) as the basis for their solutions for DAB/DRM receivers. Although the costs of making ICs in bulk drops every year, the set up cost of specially designed chips increases and so does the unit cost of small production runs so any changes to the IC are expensive and slow to effect.
RadioScape uses the same Software Defined approach for its market leading broadcasting solutions for DAB and Mobile TV. These are software programmes that run on industrial PCs. Again the hardware costs are kept low as PCs are standard items and any changes are simply done in software. RadioScape’s market-leading, broadcast solution for DAB and Mobile TV (MTV) has been installed around the world with over 75 live systems and has been used in numerous broadcast trials.
What innovations
has RadioScape developed for Digital Radio?
The Eureka 147 standard for DAB is extremely robust. It was designed to be able to receive accurately when on the move - even on high speed trains. That is something that most other rival technologies cannot do. This robust stability has enabled RadioScape to create a series of innovations for DAB.
RadioScape is actively investigating other digital radio standards and will bring out products based on them when appropriate. The company is actively involved with standards committees for existing and emerging digital radio standards.
- In 2003 at NAB, RadioScape was the first to show video over DAB that was packetised using IP protocol and a bandwidth of 128k
- In 2003 at IBC, RadioScape was the first to show real time streamed video over DAB
- In 2003 at IBC, RadioScape was the first to show 5.1 audio over DAB using a bandwidth of 190k
- In 2005 at 3GSM, RadioScape demonstrated DMB broadcasts to hand held receivers
- In 2005 at the Digital Radio Show, RadioScape announced and demonstrated the first software defined DAB/DRM module design
- In 2006, RadioScape provided the technology for thirteen Mobile TV systems that cover all the major Chinese conurbations
- In 2006 First to offer RFIC solution. RadioScape RS220 offers significant low power, low cost solution for DAB radios.
What is RadioScape doing in Mobile TV/DMB?
RadioScape has leveraged its world class expertise in DAB to create innovative solutions for Mobile TV using Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB). This uses the well-proven, Eureka 147 Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) standard with additional forward error correction to ensure robust video reception in both fixed and mobile environments. One of key advantages of DMB is that the required spectrum is already available in many countries unlike other systems that have spectrum allocation issues that may take several years to resolve. This technology enables both digital audio and Mobile TV to be received on the same mobile device, which has proved a very popular feature according to users in trials.
RadioScape has supplied broadcast, monitoring and receiver technologies for numberous trials around the world and commercial mobile TV solutions. The First with BT movio in the uk and 13 mobile TV systems in China.
Why is the UK leading in DAB?
There are three things that need to come together for DAB to be successful.
- First, the broadcast infrastructure has to be in place to reach the majority
of the population.
- Second, receivers need to be available at consumer price points - sub £100
was the breakthrough price for the UK.
- Third, there has to be different and compelling content.
In many countries, DAB just duplicated existing radio stations so there was no compelling reason to buy a DAB receiver. However, in the UK the BBC pioneered the launch of several completely new DAB radio stations that makes it worthwhile for people to buy a new radio and provides momentum and a critical mass of potential listeners to support the launch of commercial DAB radio stations. As a result, there are hundreds of DAB stations across the UK - more than the number of FM stations.
What is DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) and does it compete with DAB?
DRM is the only global standard for the digitising of broadcasting in the AM (SW, MW and LW) frequency bands. Able to cover great distances and provide near “FM quality” audio using much lower transmission power and smaller amounts of spectrum, DRM is currently being widely adopted around the world to provide new and higher quality broadcasts for both national and international audiences. Over 20 Broadcasters are already broadcasting using DRM across the globe and include the BBC (World Service), Deutsche Welle, RTL Group, Radio Netherlands, and TDF. More information can be found at www.drm.org
DAB is ideal for short range broadcasts of a few dozen miles or kilometers so that a network of transmitters is required to cover a country. By contrast, one DRM transmitter can cover an entire continent and even go from one continent to another. Thus DAB is best suited to areas of high population density with DRM being able to cover these and areas of low population density. DAB is able to provide an enhanced user experience by being able to carry additional data such as EPG (Electronic Programme Guides), information related to the current programme and even video. DRM, however, can only carry a small amount of data.
The future for DAB and DRM is not as rivals but as complementary technologies. At IFA 2005, RadioScape was the first company in the world to show a multi-standard consumer receiver that could receiver DRM, DAB, MW, LW, SW and FM. This fully integrated solution enables the listener to select what he or she wants to listen to from a display of available radio stations and the receiver works out which technology to use. This is the content-driven future for Digital Radio, where the technology to deliver it is transparent to the user.
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