Analog and digital audio alignment in the HD radio exciter engine (exgine)
AssigneeiBiquity Digital Corporation
InventorsRussell Iannuzzelli, Adam Horowitz, Jeffrey R Detweiler, William E. Snelling
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Abstract
An apparatus comprises a digital input port configured to receive digital audio packets of main program service (MPS) audio; a modem operatively coupled to the digital port; an analog input port configured to receive an audio engineer society format (AES) audio signal that is a digitized version of the analog signal component of the frequency modulation (FM) hybrid radio signal; and an alignment unit configured to time-align the AES audio signal with the digital audio packets at the modem; wherein the modem is configured to generate the FM hybrid radio signal using the digital audio packets and the time-aligned AES audio signal.
Claims20
An apparatus for generating a frequency modulation (FM) hybrid radio signal for broadcast, the apparatus comprising:
- a digital input port configured to receive digital audio packets of main program service (MPS) audio;
- a modem operatively coupled to the digital port;
- an analog input port configured to receive an audio engineer society format (AES) audio signal that is a digitized version of the analog signal component of the FM hybrid radio signal;
- and
- an alignment unit configured to time-align the AES audio signal with the digital audio packets at the modem;
- wherein the modem is configured to generate the FM hybrid radio signal using the digital audio packets and the time-aligned AES audio signal.
A method for controlling operation of a hybrid radio exciter engine, the method comprising:
- receiving digital audio packets of main program service (MPS) audio at a digital port of the hybrid radio exciter engine and providing the digital audio packets to a modem of the hybrid radio exciter engine;
- receiving an audio engineer society format (AES) audio signal of the MPS audio at an analog port of the hybrid radio exciter engine, wherein the AES audio signal is a digitized version of an analog audio signal of the MPS audio;
- aligning the AES audio signal in time with corresponding digital audio packets at the modem;
- and
- generating a frequency modulated (FM) hybrid radio signal for broadcast that includes time-aligned analog MPS audio and digital MPS audio.
An apparatus for generating a frequency modulation (FM) hybrid radio signal for broadcast, the apparatus comprising:
- a digital input port configured to receive digital audio packets of main program service (MPS) audio;
- a modem operatively coupled to the digital input port;
- an analog input port configured to receive an audio engineer society format (AES) audio signal that is a digitized version of the analog signal component of the FM hybrid radio signal;
- a sampling circuit configured to resample the AES audio signal to produce a clock-restored AES audio signal;
- and
- a rate adjustment circuit configured to determine a sampling rate of digital audio information included in the digital audio packets and adjust a rate of resampling of the AES audio signal to reduce a sample rate difference between an audio sample of the clock-restored AES audio signal and a digital audio packet corresponding to the audio sample;
- wherein the modem is configured to generate the FM hybrid radio signal using time-aligned AES audio samples and digital MPS audio.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.