New prospects for high-quality digital sound broadcasting to mobile, portable and fixed radio receivers

The concept and basic principles underlying an entirely new type of digital sound broadcasting system, which can be designed at the outset to serve mobile, portable and fixed home receivers, have been described. The ability of the convolutionally-coded, orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) system to work in a selective multipath environment creates the opportunity for good service to mobile and portable receivers with omnidirectional antennas, even in dense urban and wooded rural areas, provided that there is sufficient signal to overcome normal shadowing losses. A first implementation of such a system is in progress at the CCETT Laboratories and will soon be tested under real conditions