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Radio broadcasting
WORKSHOP
Moderator: Mathias, http://www.opendigitalradio.org, broadcast at opendigitalradio dot org
Date: Day 3 (29.12.2009), Room A03, 14:00-16:00h
Software radio techniques for terrestrial digital radio broadcasting transmission. Build your own software FM, DAB transmitter.
Schedule:
- Introduction on digital radio
- Introduction on software radio and USRP
- Demonstration for FM broadcasting of one or more stations using gnuradio.
- Workshop on the creation of a DAB multiplex and transmission
Deliverables
- Workshop presentation slides: File:Workshop opendigitalradio.pdf
For other information, please website http://www.opendigitalradio.org or join the mailing list for comments or questions: https://lists.saitis.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openradio
Who shall attend ?
Anyone interested by radio broadcasting or just interested by software radio, gnuradio and USRP.
Bring your USRP if you have one ! (with BasicTX daughterboard) For those who don't have a USRP it is still possible to generate streams to send on the transmission platform so bring your linux laptop.
Preparation (not mandatory for participation to the workshop but recommended): Request a MMBTools CD iso and burn it. (MMBtools maintainers also request people to write an email to get the CD). Otherwise it is also possible to get directly the source of the DAB multiplexer (doesn't include OFDM modulator and USRP baseband player)
More information on http://www.opendigitalradio.org
Background
Broadcasting is sometime considered, by the new generations, as a dying media that will be soon completely superseeded by Internet. However it is a nice, efficient and green way to reach masses without intermediaries but just using radio spectrum directly (despite the fact that the use spectrum is subject to a licence). For these reasons and apart from the big public or private broadcasters interests, it has still an interest for local communities. In particular, it offers anonymous listening and is free-to-air (no subscription needed) which is of importance for example in poor countries or where freedom of information does not apply.
In radio, Analog transmission using AM, FM is still very popular but may be replaced in the future by digital techniques such as DAB, DAB+, T-DMB, DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) or DRM+. In television analog transmission using PAL or SECAM is being stopped in Europe and replaced by DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-H (for mobile) or other digital satellite or cable transmission techniques.
Transmitting using these technologies usually requires complex and costly equipment out of reach of individuals. However, since the democratization of software defined radio (SDR), a new field of possibilities opens for experimentation, micro networks, etc. In the longer term also if software based radio become also democratized in common receivers, it could even be possible to develop personalized broadccasting system based on free/open technologies for example. The combination of personal (Internet,..) networks and broadcast also offer interesting possibilities.
In this workshop we will try to explore actual possibilities and realize a DAB transmission doing the encoding, multiplexing, modulation on a linux PC using MMBTools and using a USRP as generic transmission hardware.