First Over-The-Air Transmission From Special CES Station
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- (LVCC S227) -- NPR, Harris
Corporation and Towson University today announced a new initiative to make
radio more accessible to the hundreds of millions of hearing and visually
impaired people around the world.
At a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas,
the three organizations announced the global accessible radio technology
initiative and provided the first live demonstration of the accessible
radio technology. The group also announced a new research center for
developing future technologies on the campus of Towson University near
Baltimore, MD. Additional plans call for the establishment of an
international consortium of equipment manufacturers, broadcasters and other
organizations to help foster broad adoption of the initiative.
The initiative will be spearheaded by the three founding organizations
and will leverage cutting-edge HD Radio(TM) technology to enable
hearing-impaired people to "see" live radio content on specially equipped
receivers by applying television closed-captioning processes to radio
broadcasts. The technology also will provide audio cues and voice prompts,
as well as advanced radio reading services, for those visually impaired and
blind.
"Digital radio technology makes it possible -- for the first time -- to
serve the sensory impaired," says Mike Starling, vice president and chief
technology officer of NPR. "Beyond developing the technology, this
initiative will ensure the accessibility of these radio services at minimal
costs."
During the press conference, the organizations showcased the first
over- the-air transmission of the accessible radio technology using a
signal from WX3NPR, a special temporary station authorized by the FCC for
the live broadcast. Attendees at the press conference watched the text
transcript of the NPR flagship morning news magazine "Morning Edition" on
the HD Radio receiver's viewing screen, which is what a hearing-impaired
listener will see using the technology. Additionally, the demonstration
carried a digital radio reading service that will assist the visually
impaired with daily readings of current books, newspapers and magazines.
Following the demonstration, the participating organizations unveiled
details for the International Center for Accessible Radio Technology
(ICART), which will be headquartered at Towson University in Towson, MD.
Towson will house the primary administrative and academic research office
for the initiative, with NPR Labs in Washington, DC, providing technology
R&D and software development, and Harris Corporation supplying transmission
and research support at its radio broadcast technology center in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Members of the global initiative went on to detail plans to further
study and understand the challenges faced by the sensory-impaired
population in accessing radio broadcasts, and develop methodologies to
address those issues through cutting-edge technologies. To ensure that the
effort represents the widest range of participants and fosters the broadest
possible adoption, organizers said they will work to bring together
policymakers, broadcasters, transmission equipment companies and receiver
manufacturers from around the world. Presently, the initiative has more
than a dozen members, representing virtually every aspect of the
"microphone to loudspeaker" chain: broadcasters, network content providers,
infrastructure and transmission equipment companies, and receiver
manufacturers. In addition to founding members NPR, Harris and Towson
University, supporting organizations include iBiquity Digital Corporation,
Delphi, NDS, Radiosophy, Helen Keller Institute, Carl and Ruth Shapiro
Family National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH(NCAM), Northern
Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons, and the
G3ict, an Advocacy Initiative of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT
and Development.
NPR, Harris and Towson will jointly determine strategic direction of
the organization, with assistance from the initiative's full membership.
NPR will provide much of the content, Harris will provide much of the
transmission- related technologies, and Towson will provide research into
the needs of the sensory-disabled population and will house the primary
ICART facility on its campus.
"We're working very closely with radio stations around the world to
ensure they have the right technical infrastructure in place for this
initiative," said Howard Lance, chairman, president and chief executive
officer of Harris Corporation. "The new HD Radio transmission systems we're
installing are tailor-made for this effort, as their digital capabilities
will make it relatively easy for stations to transmit live textual
transcripts to HD Radio receivers."
"There is tremendous need for accessible radio for sensory-impaired
people, including the deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind, visually impaired,
print impaired, deaf/blind, and mobility impaired," said Dr. Ellyn
Sheffield, assistant professor of psychology at Towson and co-director of
ICART. "There is no question this initiative will have a profound impact on
the quality of millions of people's lives. Finally, sensory-disabled
individuals will have access to all radio programming, as well as radio
emergency alerts and vital disaster recovery information."
HD Radio enables station operators to split their broadcasts up into
multiple channels, providing several CD-quality channels for their
audiences. Through this accessible radio initiative, a small amount of the
total data capacity will be used to carry textual data that will be shown
live on a screen on new versions of HD Radio receivers, essentially
providing a closed- captioning transcript of live broadcasts for the deaf.
Initially, the closed- captioning text will be created by live,
court-reporting-type captioners at individual stations and networks.
Ultimately, the initiative is hoping to leverage advanced speech-to-text
translation software applications that one day allow expansion of
captioning across the radio dial. Specially equipped HD Radio receivers are
in development with several features to provide the visually impaired
audience with better access to broadcasts, such as audio prompts that
notify which direction the tuner is going, what channel the radio is on,
and larger, easier-to-read text on the radios.
More than 1,500 radio stations are currently broadcasting in HD Radio
in the United States. Over half of the CPB-qualified stations have been
awarded HD Radio conversion grants by the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. According to current estimates, by 2010, all 825 public radio
stations should be broadcasting digitally.
More information on the initiative can be found at http://www.i-cart.net.
About NPR
Since its launch in 1970, NPR has evolved into a leading multimedia
company, award-winning primary news provider and dominant force in American
life. NPR produces and/or distributes 1,500 hours of programming weekly,
including more than 150 hours of news, information, talk, entertainment and
cultural shows for the 800-plus NPR Member stations around the country,
attracting 26.5 million listeners weekly. NPR also programs two 24/7
channels for Sirius satellite radio and five 24/7 music multicast channels
for digital HD Radio, having served as an industry leader in HD research
and development; additionally it produces nearly 90 podcasts, making it the
biggest podcaster among American media companies. http://www.NPR.org offers
extensive original video and audio content, hourly newscasts, concerts and
free audio streaming of current and archived NPR programs.
About Towson University
Founded in 1866, Towson University is recognized among the nation's
best regional public universities, offering more than 100 bachelor's,
master's and doctoral degree programs in the liberal arts and sciences, and
applied professional fields. Located in suburban Towson, eight miles north
of Baltimore, the university's beautifully landscaped, 328-acre setting
offers a pleasant environment for study and a diverse campus life, as well
as easy access to a wealth of university and community resources. With
nearly 20,000 students, Towson University is the second-largest public
university in Maryland. As a metropolitan university, Towson combines
research-based learning with practical application. Its many
interdisciplinary partnerships with public and private organizations
throughout Maryland provide opportunities for research, internships and
jobs. The university's radio station, WTMD, will soon convert to digital
format and will serve as the initial testing ground for the initiative.
Towson University is a founding member of the Coalition of Urban and
Metropolitan Universities (CUMU); TU President Robert Caret holds the
office of president. Additional information can be found at http://www.towson.edu.
About Harris Corporation
Harris is an international communications and information technology
company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150
countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has annual
revenue of over $4 billion and 16,000 employees-including nearly 7,000
engineers and scientists. Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class
assured communications(TM) products, systems, and services. Additional
information about Harris Corporation is available at http://www.harris.com.
HD Radio(TM) is a proprietary trademark of iBiquity Digital Corp.
SOURCE Harris Corporation
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Related links:
http://www.harris.com
http://www.towson.edu http://www.NPR.org
CONTACT:
Jim Burke of Harris Corporation,
+1-321-727-9131, jim.burke@harris.com; Neal Stein of Technology
PR Solutions, +1-321-253-8225, nealjstein@techprsolutions.com;
Anna Christopher of NPR, +1-202-513-2304, achristopher@npr.org;
or Carol Dunsworth of Towson University, +1-410-704-4672,
cdunsworth@towson.edu
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