Digital Radio Broadcasting and CRC

Location

Today, we are on the verge of a revolution in radio broadcasting since Digital Radio Broadcasting (DRB) is just around the corner. This new DRB service will ultimately replace the current AM and FM radio services that have filled the airwaves since the 1920's for AM and the 60's for FM. CD quality audio programming and a wealth of new data services will soon be available to mobile listeners, as well as at home, through a fully digital broadcasting system. This is poised to take place by spring 1998 when the consumer receivers start to appear on the retailers shelves.

But this did not happen out of the blue. A lot of work had to take place in terms of technology development, frequency band allocation, etc. to implement the infrastructure to make it happen. It was Gérald Chouinard, from the DRB Division of CRC, who, in November 1989, succeeded in convincing the key European research labs to make their prototype DAB equipment available to the CRC and the Canadian broadcasters for tests and demonstrations in Canada. DAB stands for Digital Audio Broadcasting and this acronym has been copyrighted by the EC Eureka-147 project under which this technology was developed (see Insert "what is DAB" on this page). Three years later, this new system had been tested and demonstrated more extensively in Canada than even in Europe. This attracted great interest from the broadcasters and the public, leading to the commitment of the Canadian broadcasters to this new technology.

CRC has also been key in providing Canadian spokesmen, in Geneva, for the establishment of the ITU-R recommendations making this DAB system an international standard. During all these years, R&D continued in the DRB Division and this resulted in close monitoring of the system development and even a proposal by CRC for a major enhancement to this European DAB system standardized through ETSI.

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