Lucent Digital Radio and QEI Corporation Announce Joint Testing Agreement for Digital Audio Broadcast System

Business Wire, August 17, 1999

WARREN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 17, 1999--

Lucent Digital Radio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU), and QEI Corporation, a leading manufacturer of radio broadcast equipment, today announced that they have agreed to jointly test transmitter technology that will facilitate Lucent Digital Radio's In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) system.

Lucent Digital Radio and QEI will conduct laboratory waveform tests at QEI's facilities, part of the final development of Lucent Digital Radio's end-to-end IBOC system.

"We are very pleased to add QEI as a partner for testing our IBOC system," said Suren Pai, president of Lucent Digital Radio. "We are driving toward delivery of the best possible system for broadcasters and consumers."

Lucent Digital Radio's IBOC DAB system is an enhancement to current analog AM and FM radio broadcasting systems. It will provide greatly enhanced sound quality for AM radio and CD-like quality for FM radio, as well as interference-free reception and innovative new data services.

"QEI believes that the future of radio is IBOC," said Charles H. Haubrich, president and chief executive officer of QEI Corporation.

Lucent Digital Radio will conduct a live demonstration of its end-to-end IBOC DAB system at its Booth No. 751 at the NAB Radio Show in Orlando, FL, from August 31-September 2.

Lucent Digital Radio draws on several patented Bell Labs digital audio and channel coding techniques that provide robust digital signal delivery in an impaired broadcast channel, including Lucent's Perceptual Audio Coder (PAC(TM)) technology, which delivers CD-like quality audio at 96 Kilobits per second; Unequal Error Protection, which prioritizes information based on its effect on audio quality; and Multi-Streaming, which provides for a more robust signal in an impaired channel.

The IBOC approach will allow broadcasters to introduce digital audio programming to listeners on their current dial positions using existing transmitters and antennas. IBOC DAB is both backward- and forward-compatible: current AM/FM receivers will still be able to receive the existing analog signals in the new system. When a station elects to turn off the analog signal in the future, IBOC DAB-compatible receivers will operate with the remaining all-digital signal.

QEI Corporation is a manufacturer of broadcast, scientific RF and digital products. In 1982, they pioneered solid-state FM transmitter design with the first commercial 1 kW solid-state FM transmitter. They continue to be an industry leader in both low and high power FM systems. In addition to meeting the needs of the broadcasters, QEI supplies equipment for many scientific RF applications, and was recently awarded a contract to provide Brookhaven National Lab with driver amplifiers for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).

QEI remains one of a select group of manufacturers who still produce their RF amplifiers domestically.

For more information about QEI, please contact Jeff Detweiler, Sales Manger, on 800-334-9154 or qeisales@qei-broadcast.com. Information is also available on the Web site at www.qei-broadcast.com.

Lucent Digital Radio is a Lucent Technologies venture with a mission to develop IBOC DAB technology for AM and FM broadcasting worldwide. The Lucent Digital Radio IBOC system will be resistant to multipath and other forms of interference that impair current analog transmissions.

For marketing and sales information about Lucent Digital Radio, please contact William Casey, Director, Marketing & Sales, on 908-580-7008 or williamcasey@lucent.com. Information is also available on the Web site at www.lucent.com/ldr.> Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N. J., designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, data networking systems, business telephone systems and microelectronic components. Bell Labs is the research and development arm for the company. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit the company's web site at www.lucent.com.