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"HD RDS"?

W

w9wi

What kind of provisions are there for low-speed data transmission along with HD audio?

One of my locals (WVNS 102.5) has both RDS and HD. With the Boston Acoustics radio, if a station has HD it will display the call letters (apparently part of the HD datastream) but if that station also has RDS the RDS is ignored. If the station has RDS and is analog-only, the RDS data (PS) is displayed.

(WVNS has a translator on 102.1 which translates the RDS but not the HD -- so if I want to read the RDS data I tune to the translator instead<grin>)

Is there some kind of standard for transmitting something similar to the RDS PS data over the HD datastream? Certainly there's enough bandwidth to do so...
 
> What kind of provisions are there for low-speed data
> transmission along with HD audio?
>
> One of my locals (WVNS 102.5) has both RDS and HD. With the
> Boston Acoustics radio, if a station has HD it will display
> the call letters (apparently part of the HD datastream) but
> if that station also has RDS the RDS is ignored. If the
> station has RDS and is analog-only, the RDS data (PS) is
> displayed.
>
> (WVNS has a translator on 102.1 which translates the RDS but
> not the HD -- so if I want to read the RDS data I tune to
> the translator instead)
>
> Is there some kind of standard for transmitting something
> similar to the RDS PS data over the HD datastream?
> Certainly there's enough bandwidth to do so...
>

Yes, PAD (Program Associated Data) is the standard on HD. Two of my stations (as well as K9EZ's) are streaming title and artist this way. There are literally bunches of groups of fields you can transmit (commercial info, web addresses, transmitter location, etc). In addition, the character limitations are much less strict than that on RDS or the current satcaster hardware.

Most of the HD radio's I've seen will not pick up RDS data, only PAD.<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
> What kind of provisions are there for low-speed data
> transmission along with HD audio?
>
> One of my locals (WVNS 102.5) has both RDS and HD. With the
> Boston Acoustics radio, if a station has HD it will display
> the call letters (apparently part of the HD datastream) but
> if that station also has RDS the RDS is ignored. If the
> station has RDS and is analog-only, the RDS data (PS) is
> displayed.
>
> (WVNS has a translator on 102.1 which translates the RDS but
> not the HD -- so if I want to read the RDS data I tune to
> the translator instead)
>
> Is there some kind of standard for transmitting something
> similar to the RDS PS data over the HD datastream?
> Certainly there's enough bandwidth to do so...
>

I have seen a good number of stations that have not rolled out the PAD info yet and just have the call letters. The calls are usually programmed into the exciter so they are always there. They need to find a way to get the PAD out to the transmitter, and that usually requires a new link or at least a LAN connection of some sort.
 
> I have seen a good number of stations that have not rolled
> out the PAD info yet and just have the call letters. The
> calls are usually programmed into the exciter so they are
> always there. They need to find a way to get the PAD out to
> the transmitter, and that usually requires a new link or at
> least a LAN connection of some sort.

Can't the data feeding the RDS encoder be also sent to the HD encoder? (I'm making the rash assumption the RDS encoder is generally installed at the transmitter, I suppose maybe that's not true if people are running composite STLs?) WVNS indeed has a pretty difficult STL path - their transmitter is in the middle of nowhere - so if the PAD requires another link it may be a long time before we see it on that station!
 
> > I have seen a good number of stations that have not rolled
>
> > out the PAD info yet and just have the call letters. The
> > calls are usually programmed into the exciter so they are
> > always there. They need to find a way to get the PAD out
> to
> > the transmitter, and that usually requires a new link or
> at
> > least a LAN connection of some sort.
>
> Can't the data feeding the RDS encoder be also sent to the
> HD encoder? (I'm making the rash assumption the RDS encoder
> is generally installed at the transmitter, I suppose maybe
> that's not true if people are running composite STLs?) WVNS
> indeed has a pretty difficult STL path - their transmitter
> is in the middle of nowhere - so if the PAD requires another
> link it may be a long time before we see it on that station!
>

Absolutely. In fact one of my sites is being fed that way until I get my LAN run up there. BE makes an RDS "multiplexer" that splits up the serial RDS data into multiple "streams". It does require special software to run on both ends, but it you're using BE's "TRE" software for RDS, you're 90% there...<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
> > > I have seen a good number of stations that have not
> rolled
> >
> > > out the PAD info yet and just have the call letters.
> The
> > > calls are usually programmed into the exciter so they
> are
> > > always there. They need to find a way to get the PAD
> out
> > to
> > > the transmitter, and that usually requires a new link or
>
> > at
> > > least a LAN connection of some sort.
> >
> > Can't the data feeding the RDS encoder be also sent to the
>
> > HD encoder? (I'm making the rash assumption the RDS
> encoder
> > is generally installed at the transmitter, I suppose maybe
>
> > that's not true if people are running composite STLs?)
> WVNS
> > indeed has a pretty difficult STL path - their transmitter
>
> > is in the middle of nowhere - so if the PAD requires
> another
> > link it may be a long time before we see it on that
> station!
> >
>
> Absolutely. In fact one of my sites is being fed that way
> until I get my LAN run up there. BE makes an RDS
> "multiplexer" that splits up the serial RDS data into
> multiple "streams". It does require special software to run
> on both ends, but it you're using BE's "TRE" software for
> RDS, you're 90% there...
>


I'm in Houston and all of CC's HD1 channels have RDS (or PAD).
 
> > What kind of provisions are there for low-speed data
> > transmission along with HD audio?
> >
> > One of my locals (WVNS 102.5) has both RDS and HD. With
> the
> > Boston Acoustics radio, if a station has HD it will
> display
> > the call letters (apparently part of the HD datastream)
> but
> > if that station also has RDS the RDS is ignored. If the
> > station has RDS and is analog-only, the RDS data (PS) is
> > displayed.
> >
> > (WVNS has a translator on 102.1 which translates the RDS
> but
> > not the HD -- so if I want to read the RDS data I tune to
> > the translator instead)
> >
> > Is there some kind of standard for transmitting something
> > similar to the RDS PS data over the HD datastream?
> > Certainly there's enough bandwidth to do so...
> >
>
> Yes, PAD (Program Associated Data) is the standard on HD.
> Two of my stations (as well as K9EZ's) are streaming title
> and artist this way. There are literally bunches of groups
> of fields you can transmit (commercial info, web addresses,
> transmitter location, etc). In addition, the character
> limitations are much less strict than that on RDS or the
> current satcaster hardware.
>
> Most of the HD radio's I've seen will not pick up RDS data,
> only PAD.
>

The BA receptor picks up each type of radio test but not at teh same time.


Tonight one of the HD stations around Boston is diplaying "who farted?" in between songs on their PAD.
 
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