Tämmöinen merkkipäiväuutinen sattui silmiin italialaisessa Radiopassioni
blogissa:
RDS celebrates 25th birthday
13 March 2009
It is now 25 years ago (March 1984) that the EBU published the original RDS
(Radio Data System) specification, also known as 'EBU Tech 3244'. The
development of the system was started in 1975 by the EBU Technical Committee.
Since then RDS has become enormously succesful worldwide.
History
Credits for the basic concept behind RDS go to German organisations
Bosch/Blaupunkt and the IRT. It is their analogue 'ARI' (Autofahrer Rundfunk
Information) system that triggered the development of digital 'nephew' RDS,
managed by Ernst Schwarz (Swiss PTT) and Dietmar Kopitz (EBU). After
publication in 1984 of the RDS spec, in 1987 the first RDS car radio was
marketed by Volvo. A year later regular RDS services started in Austria,
Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. For radio users RDS
may be known most of all for the Programme Service name on their radios
(RDS-PS) and Traffic Announcement (RDS-TA and RDS-TP) switching.
Visionary work
The production of hundreds of millions of RDS equipped car radios is a
testimonial to its visionary development process. A small test at the
International Motorshow that is currently being held in Geneva, revealed RDS is
very well known in the industry and is still used as a selling argument in
radio specifications. In recent years RDS technology has even found its way
into mobile phones. Despite no expectation of such a requirement for the
original developers this required no change to the specifications!
RDS-TMC
One element of RDS particularly interesting to modern navigational equipment is
RDS-TMC, the traffic information system. Recommended by the European Commission
in 1994 for the 'Trans-European Road Network', this system is used in many
European countries. However, with the renewed interest in digital radio,
RDS-TMC could become (gradually) replaced by its younger 'cousin', TPEG
(Transport Protocol Experts Group). The new WorldDMB/EBU Digital Radio Profiles
already mention both TMC and TPEG as technologies to be used with digital radio.
Whatever the future will bring exactly, one thing is for sure: thanks to the
dedicated passion of many great engineers at EBU Members and equipment
manufacturers, RDS became the success it still is. Congratulations
73 JP
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Tilaa WRTH 2009 nyt:
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2009
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