The worldspace programme: The first dab satellite service for the world

Abstract

The WorldSpace satellite DAB system will provide by 1998‐1999 dozens of high quality radio channels accessible to a potential audience of 4 billion people world‐wide who currently receive with various kinds of difficulty and limitations terrestrial radio programming. The system will consist of geostationary satellites, low cost radio receivers called StarMan™, and the associated ground control networks. The system will use state‐of‐the‐art digital audio coding techniques and, on board the satellite, baseband processing technology. This paper presents the overall description, performance and industrial organiazation of the system.