Lucent Digital Radio and Armstrong Transmitter Corporation Announce Continued Tests of Lucent Digital Audio Broadcasting System - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, August 9, 1999

Lucent Digital Radio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU), and Armstrong Transmitter Corporation, a well-known transmitter manufacturer, has announced they will extend their testing of transmitter technology used in Lucent Digital Radio's In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) system.

Lucent Digital Radio recently conducted tests of its IBOC FM system on National Public Radio (NPR) member station WBJB-FM using an Armstrong transmitter. These tests were the first time that an IBOC system successfully passed a hybrid (both analog and digital) signal over a radio station's antenna and transmitter without affecting the host analog signal.

"Our work with Armstrong at station WBJB-FM has allowed us to demonstrate a successful series of over-the-air IBOC transmissions," said Suren Pai, president of Lucent Digital Radio. "The Armstrong transmitter has operated flawlessly with our system since it was installed in early April of this year."

"We are excited to be working with Lucent to enable the future of digital radio," said Sinan Mimaroglu, president of Armstrong Transmitter. "Armstrong is firmly committed to IBOC; our product line is solidly focused on digital transmission. We are pleased that Lucent Digital Radio has demonstrated our technical capabilities, which reinforces our reputation for building high-quality, highly reliable products."

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, CD-like quality for FM radio, as well as interference-free reception and innovative new data services.

Lucent Digital Radio draws on several patented Lucent digital audio and channel coding techniques that provide robust digital signal delivery in an impaired broadcast channel, including Lucent's Perceptual Audio Coder (PAC) technology, which delivers CD-like quality audio at 96 Kilobits per second; 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.

Armstrong Transmitter Corporation manufactures a complete line of FM Transmitters, UHF Television Transmitters, Frequency Agile STL systems and FM and UHF TV Antenna systems. The Marcellus, New York Company was founded in 1987. For additional information about Armstrong Transmitter and its products contact Ernie Belanger at 315-673-1269 or fax 315-673-9972 or email sales@armstrongtx.com.

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

FMI: 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.