Press Releases Archive

Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits

First European DAB Surround Broadcasts

Press Release 25.10.2005

Broadcasts of digital surround radio are being presented by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in partnership with Swedish Radio, Danish Radio, Rock Antenne Bayern, Panasonic, Audi, Bayern Digital Radio (BDR) and Bose during several events in autumn 2005. A classical music concert performed by the National Danish Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen was world’s first real-time surround broadcast of a live event via Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB).

A live 5.1 channel broadcast using DAB Surround was demonstrated in collaboration between Dansk Radio (DR), Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS and Panasonic. The National Danish Symphony Orchestra performed classical music conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner while Fraunhofer IIS and its partners provided a complete real-time broadcasting chain. DAB Surround reception was also demonstrated in a car moving in the city of Copenhagen. Even under poor reception conditions the DAB Surround decoder provided full service until the basic audio codec (MPEG Layer-2) could no longer support a valid audio signal.

During the Medientage in Munich, October 26 –28, private radio station Rock Antenne Bayern will expand its stereo broadcast services from stereo to multi-channel. This DAB Surround partnership project of Fraunhofer IIS, BDR, Audi and Bose will enable digital surround radio reception across Bavaria.

A similar demonstration will be shown during the International Tonmeister Symposium at Hohenkammer Castle with in-car DAB Surround enjoyment powered by Panasonic Automotive Systems.

DAB Surround opens up multi-channel sound to digital radio. DAB listeners can enjoy a completely new listening experience. DAB Surround is fully backwards compatible to all DAB receivers already in the market. DAB Surround combines the existing MPEG Layer-2 audio codec with MPEG Surround, a technology currently being standardized by the Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG). This brings 5.1 Surround Sound to DAB while still supporting the full range of Programme Associated- Data (PAD) services. Instead of the conventional MPEG Layer-2 stereo encoder broadcasting stations may just use a DAB Surround encoder. On the receiver side a conventional DAB receiver will ignore the surround information and play high quality stereo while DAB Surround receivers reproduce the full multi-channel sound. Thus, MPEG Surround guarantees a smooth, compatible and cost-effective introduction of multi-channel sound to DAB.

Additional information on DAB Surround can be found at www.dabsurround.com. Download PDF-Version