NPR, Harris Corporation and Towson University Launch Global Effort To Make Radio Accessible to Hearing and Sight Impaired
January 08 2008 - 12:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
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. DATASOURCE:
Harris Corporation CONTACT: Jim Burke of Harris Corporation,
+1-321-727-9131, ; Neal Stein of Technology PR Solutions,
+1-321-253-8225, ; Anna Christopher of NPR, +1-202-513-2304, ; or
Carol Dunsworth of Towson University, +1-410-704-4672, Web site:
http://www.harris.com/ http://www.towson.edu/ http://www.npr.org/
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