GatesAir has announced innovations to its HD Radio product portfolio – powered through its fourth-generation Flexiva Importer/Exporter, the FMXi 4g claims to be the industry’s first HD Radio Importer/Exporter providing dynamic time and audio correction. The algorithm employed in the FMXi 4g ensures accurate time alignment between analogue (FM) and digital (HD Radio) signals, and removes objectionable blending artefacts. As the digital signal transitions to analogue and back, the lack of time alignment prevents programme linearity for the listener due to an eight-second delay between the analogue and digital broadcast.
HD Radio Diversity Delay was first only achievable through manual adjustments, and later through interoperability between modulation monitors and either exporters or audio processors. GatesAir’s innovation eliminates all manual and external device needs to enable time alignment by integrating Diversity Delay software inside the FMXi 4g.
‘The software intelligence built into the FMXi 4g aligns the time, levels and phase of the audio to remove undesirable artifacts and deliver a clean and engaging audience experience,’ explains Chief Product Officer, Rich Redmond. ‘We believe that this will prove valuable not only to broadcasters that deliver from a single transmitter, but also for single-frequency networks that have multiple, overlapping transmitters delivering precision-timed HD Radio content across larger markets and terrain-challenged regions.’
FMXi 4g also manages the convergence of Importer and Exporter functions into a single software-embedded system. The removal of a standalone, computer-based Importer or Exporter eliminates the boot-up process, removes moving parts and frees broadcasters from troublesome PC-based applications. HD Radio implementation is greatly simplified by integrating the Importer and Exporter and eliminating complex external networks, clocking and GPS references between disparate systems, which raises the possibility of packet loss and other imperfections.
More: www.gatesair.com
