Lucent Digital Radio and Electonics Research Inc. Announce Agreement to Develop Digital Radio Broadcast Equipment

Business Wire, June 3, 1999

WARREN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 1999--

Lucent Digital Radio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lucent Technologies, and Electronics Research Inc., a leading radio equipment manufacturer, today announced that they have agreed to jointly develop combiner technology that can be used in Lucent's In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) system.

A combiner is a device used for adding together two radio signals -- an analog signal and a digital signal -- for transmission over the air using the same antenna. In the IBOC system, the device will combine the existing analog host signal and the new digital FM signal.

Lucent Digital Radio (LDR) is already utilizing a prototype IBOC combiner in tests of its IBOC system at National Public Radio (NPR) member station WBJB-FM in New Jersey. Previously, LDR had announced that it had successfully tested its IBOC system live and over the air at WBJB-FM with no degradation of the host FM analog channel during the transmission of the digital FM signal over the same FM band.

Suren Pai, president of Lucent Digital Radio stated, "ERI is the leader in antenna and combiner technology. Although there is science involved with developing new combiners, there is a lot of art in it as well. Tom Silliman and his team at ERI are world famous in this industry and we are honored to be working with them to solve this very difficult problem."

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with Lucent Digital Radio on developing IBOC combiners," said Tom Silliman, president of ERI. "Our strengths compliment each other and this will lead to a successful implementation of LDR's IBOC system."

Lucent Digital Radio will be using ERI's IBOC combiners at other field test locations. The two companies will also be exploring alternatives to combining technologies, such as advanced antenna technologies. The advantage of these new technologies will be not only to implement IBOC, but also to lower the cost of IBOC deployment.

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

Lucent Digital Radio draws on several patented 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 near-CD quality audio at 96 Kb/s; Unequal Error Protection, which prioritizes information based on its impact to 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.

ERI was established during World War II to assist the Department of Defense in avionics research. In 1945 ERI modified the new FM wireless technology for civilian use and constructed a transmitter, tower and antenna for one of the earliest experimental FM stations, W9XEV in Glenwood, Indiana. Through the next five decades ERI continued to lead the wireless development with innovative product designs and meticulous fabrication for both the public and private sectors. Many now common products including the circularly polarized, internally fed FM antenna; improved temperature compensation of RF filters; and electrically transparent antenna support structures originated at ERI.

For more information about ERI, please contact Beth Seaton, Sales Support, on 812-925-6000 Ext. 226. You can also visit the Web site at www.ERIinc.com.

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

For more information about Lucent Digital Radio, please contact William Casey, Director, Marketing & Sales, on 908-580-7008 or williamcasey@lucent.com. You can also visit 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.