NRSC SAYS TOO MANY QUESTIONS STILL SURROUND AM IBOC

Evaluations of AM IBOC “compare very favorably” with analog FM in subjective analyses, said David Layer, NAB engineer who was committee member. However, he said, there remain concerns about skywave propagation at night and spectral occupancy. Key problem, Smith said, is that “there is a very difficult propagation mode at night” for AM and group needs more data to be sure about interference issues.

Skywave situation is “ugly” for all AM services, Smith said, and interference data at night “can change radically… There is just some data that it would have been very nice to have,” particularly about interference to first adjacent channel: “This needs to be studied further.” Among other things, Layer said, AM IBOC begins switching to analog backup mode at 14 millivolts of received signal strength at night, vs. 1 millivolt daytime, significantly reducing nighttime IBOC service area.

Test results did support approving AM IBOC for daytime operations, NRSC said. Layer said results, which are just being made available publicly on NRSC Website, demonstrate that subjective test results show “vast improvement” over analog AM in all types of programming. He said NRSC probably would file its full AM IBOC evaluation with FCC next week and expected Commission would seek comment.

Pointing out that CE companies showed prototype consumer FM IBOC receiver at CES show in Jan. and expected to begin selling consumer units by next Jan., Layer said: “This thing is for real now. It looks like it is really going to happen.” FM IBOC caused only 0-0.54% increase in interference in most cities tested, said Alan Rosner of Denny & Assoc. He said most of impact was on fringe of station’s service area, where percentage of listeners was lower anyway, so figure might overstate number of people affected.

IBOC also will provide new datacasting opportunities for radio stations, said David Maxson of Bcst. Signal Lab. He said key would be to combine all data services into one data stream in order to maximize capacity, unlike wasteful subcarrier system used for analog radio. Paul Signorelli of Impulse Radio said there was “huge potential” for IBOC data services, which could carry 181 kbps data rate in addition to main audio signal.

NAB Notebook…

After “sleepless night,” CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro said he would begin meeting with CEA members on possibility of compromise on FCC Chmn. Powell’s DTV plan. CEA had indicated DTV tuner portion of plan would be unacceptable because of cost of adding tuners to low-priced TVs. However, Shapiro, in Mon. keynote at MSTV meeting during NAB convention in Las Vegas, indicated CEA was caught partly by surprise by Powell announcement and might have to “modify our initial reaction a bit.” Shapiro wouldn’t discuss possible shape of compromise, saying only that he would discuss issue with members and “see what we can do.” He told us later some members might find including tuner easier than others: “There is some room for discussion.” There were other indications at convention that CEA might seek stronger commitment on cable compatibility issues in return for agreeing to some version of tuner plan, although timing of tuner adoption also remained issue.

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N.Y.C. broadcasters are “simultaneously cultivating all options” for new transmission site following loss of World Trade Center because of “potential problems” with every option, said William Baker of WNET-TV N.Y. and Metro TV Alliance. He called finding new common tower site “an urgent undertaking” because N.Y.C. broadcasting was $1.5 billion annual business and “with every day the losses mount.” Main candidate sites are in Jersey City, on Governor’s Island, in Brooklyn, downtown Manhattan, possibly atop new building that’s likely to be built on World Trade Center site, he said. Other options are either freestanding tower, which at 2,000 ft. would be tallest freestanding structure in world, or guyed structure. Baker said guyed structure would cost half of estimated $200 million for freestanding structure, but latter would generate less local opposition and require less land, but would take longer to build.

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IBM announced partnerships with FreePlay Music and SintecMedia to provide digital rights management (DRM) for broadcasters, companies said here. New Electronic Media Management software (EMMS) is extension of FreePlay technology for audio files, expanding to text, video and streaming media, they said. Open-standard EMMS is intended to provide integrated infrastructure for tracking use of media files. It includes user authentication capability and back-office functions.

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Zenith said it soon would begin field tests of DTV receiver incorporating latest NxtWave Communications tuner technology. Senior Vp Richard Lewis said new technology would give broadcasters option of trading bit rate for added robustness or portable standard-definition DTV.

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International Electrotechnical Commission is to begin discussions of blue-ray optical discs April 23 in Tokyo, officials said here. Blue-ray technology would be rewritable and allow storage of more data than DVDs.