Satellite Radio Technology Cruising
Oct. 5 -- Don’t touch that dial. Thanks to something new in the air, you might not have to ever again.
Where radio radically changed the way the world received news and information in the 1920s and ’30s, satellite radio promises to extend the range of what its proponents say will be virtually static-free programming to anywhere in the United States. Aiming to give its subscribers the choice and diversity of more than 200 new ad-free channels, two satellite radio companies are hoping its new offerings will do for radio what DirecTV does for television ... but in both the home and the car.
“The goal is to offer customers new choice and diversity ... and open up the radio market to new national, creative channels,” aid Vicki Stearn, director of public relations for XM Radio, based in Washington D.C.
XM Radio and New York-based Sirius Radio plan to roll out their competing new services sometime next year. Programming will include nearly all formats from sports to talk to music — Classical, rock&roll, jazz, you name it — without advertisements or dee-jays and wherever you roam. Both companies will sell home receivers, but their prime target is the car. And while the satellite technology is not new per se, getting a steady signal to hit a small antenna that’s constantly in motion is a fresh technical challenge.
“The moving vehicle part of it isn’t as challenging as ... getting the signal to a small antenna,” said Stearns.
Not Your Father’s Radio
Satellite distribution of radio and television programming is standard in the broadcast world. Broadcasters such ABC, CBS and NBC uplink programs daily to satellites so that affiliate TV and radio networks can downlink them for transmission to local audiences. Such signals to and from a satellite are scrambled or encoded and can only be unscrambled or decoded with the correct equipment.
XM and Sirius Radio will work similarly. Each will beam their programming to orbitting communications and terrestrial satellites, which will send out signals the satellite radio receivers will pick up. These receivers, somewhat akin to AM/FM receivers, are made up of two parts: an “active” antenna and a receiving modulator.
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