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UNPACKING AND INSPECTION
As soon as the equipment is received, inspect carefully for any
shipping damage. If damage is suspected, notify the carrier at
once, and then contact Inovonics.
We recommend retaining the original shipping carton and pack-
ing materials, just in case return or transshipment becomes ne-
cessary. If returned for Warranty repair, shipping damage sus-
tained as a result of improper packing for return
may invali-
date the Warranty!
IT IS IMPORTANT
to complete and return the Warranty Regis-
tration Card that accompanies this manual, or to register the
Warranty on the Company’s Website, www.inovon.com. This
assures coverage of the equipment under terms of the Warran-
ty, provides a means of tracing lost or stolen gear, and adds the
user to a database to receive specific service instructions or
software/firmware updates when issued.
THE RADIO DATA SYSTEM DEFINED
RDS is a digital data channel transmitted as a low-level subcar-
rier above the range of the composite stereo program signal in
the FM broadcast baseband. The data transmission (baud) rate
is comparatively low, yet it is quite robust because of redun-
dancy and error correction routines. The injection level of the
57kHz RDS subcarrier is a relatively low 3% to 5%, thus it does
not rob the broadcaster of significant program audio modula-
tion.
It is not within the scope of this Manual to cover the details of
RDS subcarrier coding and modulation. For this the reader is
directed to the Specification appropriate to his location, either
the CENELEC EN50067 Specification for Europe, or the United
States NRSC Specification. It is assumed that the user has some
familiarity with the concept of RDS as the balance of this Ma-
nual will deal exclusively with Inovonics 730 Encoder imple-
mentation.
In particular, the explanations of the various messaging and
housekeeping functions afforded by RDS will help the reader
become more familiar with what the system has to offer and
how it can be used to the broadcaster’s greatest advantage.
These explanations begin on Page 9.
RDS: EUROPE vs. AMERICA
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and its member coun-
tries originated the concept of “Radio Data” transmission. The
European RDS specification, CENELEC Standard EN50067, was
first published in 1984, and was subsequently revised in 1986,
1990, 1991, 1992 and 1998.
