RadioScape miniature DAB module for PDAs

["Kenneth Watt" <kwatt@xxxxxxx>]

News Article ID: 3664
25 March 2003
RadioScape miniature DAB module for PDAs
RADIOSCAPE is to develop a miniature DAB receiver that plugs into a PDA
to let it play video on the move - without the need for a 3G cellphone
or 3G subscription.

This follows the first live demonstration in which a DAB digital radio
and pocket PC were used to perform much like a 3G cellphone to receive
video on the move.

British company RadioScape had joined forces with NTL to carry out the
demonstration:  "And we have not had to pay billions for a 3G
licence"
said RadioScape chief executive officer John Hall.

Engineers succeeded in using the RadioScape RS200 DAB/FM/RDS receiver
module to squeeze good quality video and sound out of a DAB radio
channel normally used for mid-fi mono sound.

The Radio Authority broke its usual requirement for 10 days advance
warning and granted a temporary licence for NTL and RadioScape to
broadcast live video by DAB at London's Tower Bridge.

Using the latest Windows Media 9 software, RadioScape converted the
pictures and sound of a Monsters Inc DVD into MPEG-4 video, running at
just 64 kbps. This was broadcast at very low power as Internet data,
picked up by a DAB receiver and displayed on a PC running everyday
Windows Media Player software.

With a frame rate of 7 fps, screen resolution of 176x144 and a screen
window the size of a PDA, the pictures were astonishingly good.