[Discuss-gnuradio] New Motorola Radio Chipset Promises Better Reception
From:
Steve Schear
Subject:
[Discuss-gnuradio] New Motorola Radio Chipset Promises Better Reception
Date:
Mon, 30 Sep 2002 21:45:57 -0700
New Motorola Radio Chipset Promises Better Reception
By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. -- Motorola Inc. has developed a new digital chipset to
improve radio reception and sound quality, allowing drivers to hold on to
a station's signal longer.
The company plans to unveil Tuesday its Symphony Digital Radio Chipset.
The three-chip technology converts analog signals received by a
traditional AM/FM radio into digital signals. Motorola says the
conversion cleans up the sound and, because of more precise tuning,
prevents adjacent stations from interfering with each other. The company
also says the chipsets will enable radios to pick up weak signals that
would not normally be tunable.
The new chipset could raise questions in the music business. Record
labels, which are fighting a wave of online song-swapping and
compact-disc burning, are likely to object to any technology that will
make it easier for consumers to create better-sounding, digital copies of
songs coming in over the airwaves. Motorola says the technology could
eventually make it cheaper and easier to burn CDs because it already
digitizes the songs, reducing the number of steps necessary to transfer
them to a hard drive.
Radio broadcasters may well embrace the new technology. Radio companies
have been working to roll out their own digital broadcasts and receivers
to upgrade the sound of their programming, partly as a way to combat the
new satellite radio services. The new Motorola chipset may allow them to
improve the sound quality of local broadcasts without investing in
expensive new transmission equipment, because it already converts the
analog signals.
Updated September 30, 2002