Radio can deliver audio services through a remarkably efficient, far-reaching system

One of the most interesting applications of ATSC 3.0, the new global standard for broadcasting, has been its use not only for television services but also for pure audio (radio) services.

ATSC 3.0 enables the use of IP (Internet Protocol) as a core part of the standard, allowing enormous flexibility in the potential applications of the specification. If you can send traffic over an internet link, you can also send it over 3.0. At the end of the day, it’s all just bits: video, audio, software, files, signals, and so on.

As a result, we can deliver audio services through a remarkably efficient, far-reaching and modern system.

Over the past year, we have experimented with a variety of methods of encoding, transport and physical delivery in several markets across the country including Baltimore, Las Vegas, Nashville, Detroit and Washington. The paper “Audio Services Over ATSC 3.0: A Proof of Concept,” given at the NAB Broadcast Engineering & IT Conference, explores in detail the decision-making and testing that led us to the current system design. The key results are summarized here.