PRSS ContentDepot®
Supporting Digital Radio and Tomorrow's Technologies
The PRSS ContentDepot is built to support new technologies and growth within the public radio system. One new technology looming on the public radio horizon is HD Radio, which could redefine how radio is broadcast in the United States. Owned by iBiquity, the technology for HD Radio has been approved by the FCC and could offer digital-quality audio, wireless data services, and on-demand audio.
What new features could HD Radio provide?
New digital radios became available to the general public in 2004. These digital radios can receive and display text and ultimately images on small, liquid crystal display screens. This would allow stations to display text information about the programs they are airing (such as title and featured guest) as well as non-program related announcements such as weather alerts-without disrupting the audio programming. Think of it like the bottom of a screen crawl that gives more information about the current show on your television.
Digital radio also gives stations the ability to offer two distinct program channels simultaneously. Digital compression has gotten so good that you could offer two different music channels, or one music and one news/talk channel. Public radio is leading the research and development into this capability, and over 40 stations have been granted CPB matching funds in the 13 seed markets to convert to digital transmission during 2004.
How does ContentDepot support this new technology?
The ContentDepot is designed to handle the distribution of audio elements as well as various forms of metadata. The synchronized Program Associated Data (PAD) that can display on the new digital radios is a subset of program metadata.
From NPR Distribution's perspective, the PAD has to be synchronized with the audio throughout the distribution process-from the time it is uploaded to the system by producers to playout at stations. This synchronization must be maintained for both live and stored (pre-recorded) programs. The possibility of supplemental audio channels potentially creates a greater demand for program delivery-which is exactly the kind of increase in distribution demand that the ContentDepot is built to accommodate.
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