Lucent Digital Radio Successfully Demonstrates Breakthrough Multi-Streaming Technology for Digital Radio

Business Wire, April 10, 2000

Business Editors

NAB 2000

Booth R357

WARREN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2000

Lucent Digital Radio, Inc. (LDR) today announced that it has successfully demonstrated its patented Multi-Streaming technology at three radio stations, including WPST-FM, 97.5 in Trenton, N.J.; KNPR-FM in Las Vegas, NV.

LDR is a venture owned by Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) and Pequot Capital Management Inc.

Multi-Streaming offers robustness to counter the effects of degraded channel conditions, including interference and fading. This technique enables high-quality digital reception of audio even when part of the signal experiences severe interference. It will allow LDR's In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) system to provide a digital signal of equivalent broadcast coverage to that of today's FM analog signals.

"While this is only first of several additional operational tests, it is nonetheless a major milestone for IBOC digital radio," proclaimed Suren Pai, CEO of Lucent Digital Radio, Inc. "Our scientists and engineers have identified the single most effective way to deliver high-quality audio, and data using existing radio frequencies. This effort validates our long-held belief that Multi-Streaming PAC(TM) (Perceptual Audio Coder(TM)) is a very effective solution for IBOC AM and FM. Radio has been striving to enter the digital era and we have proven that it can be done without negatively impacting existing analog signals. We have shown that the Multi-Streaming technology can enhance the signal strength without affecting first and second adjacent channels. That's a monumental accomplishment."

A related benefit arising from Multi-Streaming is that it emulates the graceful degradation characteristic of analog signals. Annoying "cliff effects" or "digital drop-outs" have typically accompanied earlier digital systems, significantly diminishing the listening experience. Graceful degradation of audio quality allows for high-quality digital audio at the edge of analog coverage.

"We're very pleased to have had the opportunity to show how effective Multi-Streaming technology can be in a real-world broadcasting environment," said Pai. "I'm grateful to Nassau Broadcasting Partners for all their help and cooperation in conducting this trial. They have been a pioneer in utilizing radio technology and Nassau continues that tradition today by being the first radio group to help us successfully demonstrate our Multi-Streaming technology. We will now proceed to test in other markets to further validate our IBOC technology's performance under a variety of environmental conditions."

Anthony Gervasi Jr., senior vice president of engineering and technology for Nassau Broadcasting Partners, said, "Employing state-of-the-art technology to deliver the best possible signal quality to our listeners is a priority for us. Confirming the effectiveness of new, innovative technology is an important part of that effort, and we are delighted to work with LDR to do that."

LDR uses Multi-Streaming technology in its In-Band On Channel (IBOC) Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) system, which will allow terrestrial radio broadcasters to transmit higher-quality sound over AM and FM and support the introduction of innovative, low-cost data broadcast services. LDR has development agreements with Harman Kardon and Recoton for IBOC-enabled radios. Lucent Digital Radio has also licensed its Perceptual Audio Coder(TM) to XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) for use in the company's satellite radio service. XM Satellite will use LDR's version of PAC to encode and decode music, talk, and information programming that will be delivered over its up-to-100-channel satellite radio service.

The PAC coder will enable XM Satellite to deliver high quality sound to its listeners while maximizing the use of its bandwidth. The PAC coder also offers XM's receiver manufacturing partners the industry-leading digital audio coder. Alpine, Delphi-Delco, Mitsubishi Electronics Automotive America, Pioneer, and Sharp have announced that they will manufacture and market AM/FM/XM radios. and market AM/FM/XM radios.

LDR draws on several patented Bell Labs digital audio and channel coding techniques that provide robust digital signal delivery in broadcasting environments. These technologies include Perceptual Audio Coder(TM), which enables efficient transmission of high-quality audio; 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.

Pai also hailed the radio test results as important in meeting increased broadcaster interest in a workable IBOC digital radio system. "More and more broadcasters are asking us to identify a workable and economically viable system to migrate away from analog and to digital. This development will do exactly that. It enables broadcasters to either transition gradually to digital, or all at once. We will submit our findings to Federal Communications Commission for review and further validation as soon as practicable. In the meantime we will continue to identify broadcasting and receiver partners dedicated to making digital radio a reality."