Audi and Fraunhofer IIS Select SVOX to Power In-Car Digital Radio News Service

ZURICH, Switzerland - SVOX teamed with Audi and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS to develop a transmission chain of live in-car reception of NewsService Journaline service over Digital Radio DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting).

NewsService Journaline is the basis for Audi's Personal News service now in final testing. This "teletext for radio" provides continuously updated information for immediate access. Drivers choose text news sorted by topics from a hierarchically organized menu.

The transmission chain consists of the new "Fraunhofer Multimedia DataServer for DAB R4" by Fraunhofer IIS and DAB receiver technology by Atmel Corporation. The Fraunhofer Multimedia DataServer automatically aggregates content for NewsService Journaline and transmits it using DAB.

The SVOX text-to-speech system installed in the car then presents the text messages previously transmitted over DAB to the driver.

The service can be managed using the Audi multimedia interface. Based on individual preferences, the system chooses news of interest to the driver. Topics of specific interest can also be bookmarked for direct access in future.

The text based information service allows the user to navigate through text messages that are hierarchically organized in menus. NewsService Journaline is optimized for a transmission in the digital radio systems DAB as well as Drm (Digital Radio Mondiale).

Audi has offered the digital radio technology DAB to its customers since 2005. Digital Radio allows the reception of a range of programs. Currently DAB radio receivers can be ordered for the Audi models Audi A5, A6/S6, A8/S8 and Audi Q7. Today, every third A8 in Germany comes with DAB.