RDS2 milestones 2014 - 2024
The IEC published IEC 62106-6 ED2: ODAs in the public domain, including the RDS2 apps Station Logo, Slideshow and Internet Connection.
The ITU-R published Recommendation BS.643-4 on RDS and RDS2.
Caméon showed the RDS Forum a demo put on air in Nantes, using the Station Logo and Slideshow apps. The IEC published IEC 62106-10 ED1: UECP - Universal Encoder Communication Protocol with RDS and RDS2 commands.
The IEC published IEC 62106-9 ED1: RBDS - RDS variant used in North America.
The IEC published IEC 62106-2 ED2, including the RDS2 File Transfer protocol RFT used in previous demonstrations since December 2018 by Radio France and Caméon.
An RDS Forum working group met in Paris to specify three new public ODA RDS2 applications: Station Logo, Slideshow with optional image and text elements, and linking the same audio as broadcast over FM using the corresponding IP audio stream.
Radio France and Caméon, together with Worldcast Systems, demonstrated at the European Radio Show in Paris the RDS2 transfer of images with music cover art, synchronized with the music transmitted on the radio programme FIP of Radio France.
Radio France and Caméon demonstrated in Nantes the implementation of the File Transfer specification RFT. They used the RDS2 encoder from Worldcast Systems and a newly developed RDS2 demo home receiver from Caméon. They showed transmission of music cover art and station logo using file sizes up to 20 KB. The time needed to receive the files was about twice as long compared with DAB, but still very acceptable to enhance the listening experience with FM radio. The next step was to synchronize the cover art with the music items on air.
At the RDS Forum meeting in Glion it was decided that the file transfer protocol worked out at the TDF workshop needed further improvement, becoming more generic and simplified for implementation. A new working group was created to finalize the work. Mainly thanks to intensive cooperation between David Jaillet (Caméon for Radio France) and Joop Beunders, the RDS2 File Transfer specification RFT was released in October 2018 as R18/038_1.
Worldcast Systems announced at the NAB Show in Las Vegas the first commercially available RDS2 encoder to generate an RDS2 test signal and data, and its AUDEMAT FM MC5, a multipurpose FM measurement equipment permitting RDS2 decoding and analysis.
The second RDS2 Info Day was held at the Maison de la Radio of Radio France in Paris. A French RDS2 development team composed of RDS experts from Caméon, Magneti Marelli, Radio France and Worldcast Systems presented an RDS setup used to demonstrate on FRANCE INTER how images transmitted with RDS2 could enhance the listening experience. They used the same file transmission protocol previously demonstrated in Berlin and concluded that it needed enhancement by the RDS Forum to satisfy operational radio requirements. The RDS2 test receivers used were a car radio and a home receiver, jointly developed by Magneti Marelli and Caméon for Radio France.
The first RDS2 Info Day was held in Berlin. The innovations presented there were a first RDS2 encoder prototype from Jump2Go and a first RDS2 receiver, the RX014 USB stick from MacBe with RDS/RDS2 monitor decoder and data analysis software. It used a modified RDS NXP chip set developed for RDS2 decoding by Hendrik van der Ploeg from Catena, now NXP. A test transmission with RDS2 was put on air by Attila Ladanyi (T & C Holding) and Joop Beunders (MacBe), together with Seth Stroh and Allen Hartle from Jump2Go, demonstrated for the first time RDS2 transmission and reception of image files of station logos and music cover art.
The RDS Forum agreed to go ahead with RDS2.
At an RDS Forum workshop held at Magyar Radio in Budapest, the RDS experts attending recommended to the RDS Forum 2015 to give green light to standardizing RDS2 as a new option for using RDS.
At the RDS Forum meeting in Glion it was decided to have a feasibility study of xRDS, a proposal from RDS Forum member Attila Ladanyi later known as RDS2, by a small team of RDS experts during a workshop in Budapest.