Patent Publication Number: US-2004043730-A1

Title: Switchable receiver with reduced amount of audible distortions

Description:
DESCRIPTION  
       [0001] The present invention relates to a receiver for receiving simultaneously a digital signal and an analogue signal, whereby the same audio program is transmitted via said two signals. Further, the invention relates to a method for switching or sliding from a digital signal to an analogue signal and vice versa in a receiver.  
       [0002] In recent years, a lot of different standards for the digital transmission of broadcast signals, such as DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), DAB, ISDB-Tn, IBOC, XM sirius, etc. have been introduced. Most radio receivers are not capable of decoding these digital broadcast signals yet. For this reason, most these digital signals are transmitted together with a conventional analog signal (AM or FM signal), whereby the same audio program is transmitted via both signals simultaneously. Preferably, a so-called simulcast signal is transmitted, which permits to transmit the analogue signal and the digital signal simultaneously via the same channel. If a receiver is capable of decoding the digital signal, it can do so. Conventional receivers may at the same time demodulate the conventional AM or FM signal.  
       [0003] In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,065 to M. J. Dapper et al., a receiver for demodulating both the analogue signal and the digital signal of a composite analogue/digital signal is disclosed. In dependence of the signal-to-noise ratio of the received composite signal, the receiver switches from the analogue signal to the digital signal and vice versa.  
       [0004] In the European Patent Application 01 103 896.5 “Alternative system switching” a receiver is described which comprises two tuners, whereby the first tuner provides a first output signal and the second tuner provides a second output signal. The receiver comprises a switch for switching between said two output signals. The receiver comprises an amplitude adjustment unit for controlling the respective amplitudes of said two output signals in a way that they are of equal magnitude. Furthermore, the receiver comprises a delay unit for compensating a time delay between said two output signals. When switching from said first output signal to said second output signal, or back to said first output signal, the amount of audible distortions is reduced because the volume of the audio signal does not change, and the time delay is eliminated.  
       [0005] The switching still leads to annoying distortions, though. When a digital signal and an analogue signal are simultaneously received by a receiver which is capable of switching between said two signals, the demodulated analogue signal will sound completely different from the decoded digital signal. The decoded digital signal sounds rich and full, while the demodulated analogue signal sounds comparatively flat. Furthermore, the noise level of said demodulated analogue signal is much higher than the noise level of the digital signal. For these reasons, switching from one broadcast system to a different broadcast system still causes audible distortions which are annoying for a listener. Often, the reception of the digital signal is disturbed and the digital signal fades away in regular time intervals. In this case, the receiver will frequently switch between two different sounds and two different noise levels. The human auditory system soon gets used to a constant noise floor, but gets annoyed by a modulated noise floor.  
       [0006] European Patent Application 00 126 287.2 “Filter with tunable bandwidth” filed by the Applicant which content is herewith included by reference into this specification discloses a filter with tunable bandwidth that is used for neighbour channel suppression. The inventive filter comprises a filter unit with a fixed bandwidth, a first frequency shifter preceding said filter unit for shifting the signal to be filtered so that an unwanted signal part lies outside the passband of said filter, and a second frequency shifter succeeding said filter unit for compensating the frequency shift introduced by said first frequency shifter. The inventive filter is characterized by a single sideband reduction unit to reduce a signal to be filtered to a single sideband or vestigal single sideband thereof before it is input to said first frequency shifter.  
       [0007] It is an object of the invention to provide a receiver and a method for switching between an analogue signal and a digital signal, whereby the amount of audible distortions is further reduced.  
       [0008] The object of the invention is solved by a receiver according to claim 1 and by a method for switching or sliding from a digital signal to an analogue signal and vice versa according to claim 17. Preferred embodiments thereof are respectively defined in the respective following subclaims. A computer program product according to the present invention is defined in claim 27.  
       [0009] The inventive receiver receives simultaneously a digital signal and an analogue signal, whereby the same audio program is transmitted simultaneously via said two signals. The receiver comprises demodulation means for demodulating said analogue signal, and decoding means for decoding said digital signal. Furthermore, the receiver comprises switching means for switching or sliding from said digital signal to said analogue signal and vice versa in dependence of the reception situation, in order to select either said digital signal or said analogue signal as the major source of the receiver&#39;s audio output signal. The receiver comprises a sound control unit for modifying the audio bandwidth of said digital signal as a function of the reception situation.  
       [0010] The inventive method relates to switching or sliding from a digital signal to an analogue signal and vice versa in a receiver, whereby said two signals are received simultaneously, and whereby the same audio program is transmitted simultaneously via said two signals. Said switching is performed in dependence of the reception situation in order to select either said digital signal or said analogue signal as the major source of the receiver&#39;s audio output signal. The method comprises a step of modifying the audio bandwidth of said digital signal in dependence of the reception situation.  
       [0011] In a receiver that receives a digital signal and an analogue signal simultaneously, the quality of the received digital signal is monitored. As long as the quality of the digital signal is sufficient, the listener can enjoy the full, rich sound of digital audio. Digital audio is characterized by a large audio bandwidth of about 12 kHz and by a low noise level.  
       [0012] In case the reception of the digital signal gets more difficult, e.g. due to fading, the receiver will switch to analogue audio. Since the signal power of the analogue audio signal is much higher than the signal power of the digital signal, the receiver will be able to receive a strong analogue signal. Each time the receiver switches between the digital signal, which has an audio bandwidth of about 12 kHz, and the analogue signal, which has an audio bandwidth of only 4.5 kHz, the sound of the received audio output signal changes from a rich sound to a rather flat sound, or vice versa.  
       [0013] According to invention, the receiver comprises a sound control unit for modifying the audio bandwidth of said digital signal as a function of the reception situation. Before switching to analogue audio, the bandwidth of the digital signal is slowly decreased from 12 kHz to 4.5 kHz. When the receiver switches to analogue audio, this will not imply a sudden change of the sound quality any more. Switching can take place without audible distortions, and the listener won&#39;t even notice that it is no longer digital audio, but analogue audio he is listening to.  
       [0014] Preferably, said analogue signal and said digital signal are transmitted via the same transmission channel, as a simulcast signal. By using a so-called simulcast signal, it is possible to transmit a certain audio program simultaneously as an analogue signal and as a digital signal via the same channel. On part of the receiver, both signals can be obtained with a single tuner.  
       [0015] Preferably, in case the digital signal is selected as the major source of said audio output signal and the signal quality of said digital signal falls below a first predefined quality level, the receiver switches to the analogue signal as the major source of said audio output signal. Further preferably, the receiver switches back to the digital signal as the major source of said audio output signal, in case the analogue signal is selected as the major source of said audio output signal and the signal quality of said digital signal surpasses a second predefined quality level.  
       [0016] According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, said switching means switch from said digital signal to said analogue signal and from said analogue signal back to said digital signal in a sliding transition by continuously varying the mixing ratio according to which said two signals contribute to said audio output signal. By doing this, audible distortions due to instantaneous switching can be avoided. Instead, the noise level is varied smoothly, which is less annoying.  
       [0017] Preferably, in case the error rate of said digital signal exceeds a predefined threshold, said sound control unit reduces the audio bandwidth of said digital signal. A large error rate of the received digital signal indicates that it will not be possible to decode all the received data packets, and that it will probably be necessary to switch to the analogue signal. Therefore, it is advantageous to reduce the audio bandwidth of the digital signal beforehand in a way that it becomes equal to the audio bandwidth of the analogue signal. This means that the quality of the digital signal is decreased on purpose. When the situation arises that the receiver has to switch from the digital signal to the analogue signal, the switching will not imply a sudden change of the audio bandwidth any more. Because the audio bandwidth has already been smoothly decreased before, the listener will not notice a sudden change of the sound.  
       [0018] Preferably, in case of frequent occurrence of switching, said sound control unit reduces the audio bandwidth of said digital signal. Often, the digital signal is periodically lost due to fading. Each time the digital signal is lost, the receiver will switch to the analogue signal. This situation can be detected by counting how frequently switching occurs during a predefined period of time. In case of frequent switching, the bandwidth of the digital signal is reduced. When the bandwidth of digital audio is equal to the bandwidth of analogue audio, a regular blending from digital audio to analogue audio and back to digital audio is less annoying.  
       [0019] According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, in case of frequent occurrence of switching, when the receiver switches back to said digital signal as the major source of said audio output signal, a mixed signal obtained by combining said digital signal and said analogue signal is output instead of said original digital signal. While the noise level of the digital signal is low, the analogue signal has a comparatively large noise level. In case of frequent switching between said two signals, the modulation of the noise level is rather annoying for a listener. In fact, a constant large noise level would be less annoying than a modulated noise level. For this reason, the receiver outputs even in the short time periods of distortion free digital reception a combination of digital and analogue audio, in order to avoid a fluctuating noise level.  
       [0020] Preferably, said sound control unit comprises tunable bandwidth filter means, whereby the upper cut-off frequency of said filter means is varied as a function of the reception situation. The upper cut-off frequency of said tunable bandwidth filter determines the audio bandwidth of the digital signal.  
       [0021] Preferably, the audio bandwidth of said digital signal is modified in a sliding transition according to a ramp function. A sudden change of the digital signal&#39;s bandwidth would be perceived as an audible distortion. Therefore, the bandwidth of the digital signal has to be varied slowly.  
       [0022] According to a first preferred embodiment of the invention, said filter means are implemented as IIR filter means, whereby the filter coefficients are varied as a function of the reception situation. The IIR filter&#39;s upper cut-off frequency is determined by the filter coefficients. It is therefore possible to modify the cut-off frequency by varying the filter coefficients.  
       [0023] According to a second preferred embodiment of the invention, said filter means comprise a first complex mixer, a first complex lowpass filter, a second complex mixer, a second complex lowpass filter, and a third complex mixer. A complex lowpass filter can be realised as two real lowpass filters with identical coefficients.  
       [0024] According to a third preferred embodiment of the invention, said filter means comprise a single sideband reduction unit, a first frequency shifter, a lowpass filter, and a second frequency shifter. This third implementation allows to further reduce the calculation power by using a single sideband reduction unit.  
       [0025] Preferably, the receiver comprises time alignment means for compensating any time delay between the analogue signal and the digital signal in order to perform a time alignment of both signals. When decoding the digital signal, the decoder has to perform a deinterleaving of the data. For this reason, the digital signal is obtained with a time delay, whereas the demodulated analogue signal is immediately available. Said time alignment means compensate this time delay, which would otherwise cause audible distortions.  
       [0026] Further preferably, the receiver comprises amplitude adjustment means for scaling the respective amplitudes of said analogue signal and said digital signal such that they are equal. Thus, the volume of the audio signal remains constant when switching occurs.  
       [0027] Further preferably, the receiver comprises a time delay unit for delaying the analogue signal by an amount that compensates the processing time of said sound control unit. When the processing time is independent of the actual filter bandwidth, a constant delay can be chosen.  
       [0028] Additionally, a computer program product according to the present invention comprises computer program means adapted to perform the method steps as defined above when it is executed on a computer, digital signal processor or the like. 
     
    
    
     [0029] Further features, objects and advantages of the receiver and the method according to the present invention will be better understood from the following detailed description of three exemplary embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein  
     [0030]FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a receiver according to the invention, which comprises an analogue and a digital demodulation path;  
     [0031]FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a tunable bandwidth filter according to the third embodiment of the invention; and  
     [0032]FIG. 3 shows different signals occurring in the signal flow of the tunable bandwidth filter shown in FIG. 2. 
    
    
     [0033] In FIG. 1, a block diagram of a receiver for a simulcast signal is shown. By means of a simulcast signal, it is possible to transmit a digitally encoded signal and an analogue modulated signal via the same transmission channel, whereby the same program is transmitted simultaneously by said analogue signal and said digital signal.  
     [0034] The transmitted signal  1  is received via the antenna  2  and forwarded to a tuner  3 , which suppresses adjacent channels. The output of the tuner  3  is connected both to an analogue demodulator  4  and to a digital decoder  5 . The analogue demodulator  4  demodulates the analogue signal component of the simulcast signal and generates a demodulated analogue signal  6 . The audio bandwidth of said demodulated analogue signal  6  is, depending on the channel (MW, SW, LW), about 4.5 to 5 kHz.  
     [0035] The digital decoder  5  decodes the digital signal component of the simulcast signal. In order to reduce fading distortions of the wireless communications channel, the digital data of the digital signal has been interleaved in the transmitter. On part of the receiver, a deinterleaving of said data has to be performed, and for this reason, the decoded digital signal  7  is obtained with a time delay relative to the demodulated analogue signal  6 .  
     [0036] Compared to the demodulated analogue signal  6 , the audio bandwidth of the decoded digital signal  7  is about 12 kHz and therefore much higher than the audio bandwidth of the demodulated analogue signal  6 . Furthermore, the noise level of the decoded digital signal  7  is considerably smaller than the noise level of the demodulated analogue signal  6 .  
     [0037] Both the demodulated analogue signal  6  and the decoded digital signal  7  are input to a time alignment unit  8 . Within the time alignment unit  8 , both the demodulated analogue signal  6  and the decoded digital signal  7  are forwarded to a correlation unit  9 , which calculates the correlation of said two signals as a function of the relative time delay between said two signals. The peak of the correlation indicates the time delay between said demodulated analogue signal  6  and said decoded digital signal  7 . The correlation is forwarded to a control unit  10 , which controls the variable delay unit  11  for the AM demodulation path and the variable delay unit  12  for the digital decoding path such that a time alignment of the demodulated analogue signal  6  and the decoded digital signal  7  is performed.  
     [0038] The aligned analogue signal  13  and the aligned digital signal  14  are forwarded to the amplitude adjustment unit  15 , which scales the aligned analogue signal  13  and the aligned digital signal  14  in a way that the amplitudes of said two signals are of equal value. In order to accomplish this task, the amplitude adjustment unit  15  comprises two multipliers, a first multiplier  16  for multiplying the aligned analogue signal  13  with a first scaling factor  17 , and a second multiplier  18  for multiplying the aligned digital signal  14  with a second scaling factor  19 . At the respective outputs of the multipliers  16  and  18 , the scaled analogue signal  20  and the scaled digital signal  21  are obtained.  
     [0039] The scaled analogue signal  20  is low-pass filtered by the filter unit  22 , the scaled digital signal  21  is low-pass filtered by the filter unit  23 , and the thus obtained filtered signals  24 ,  25  are subtracted from each other by means of a subtractor  26 . The difference signal  27  is forwarded to the control unit  28 . Within the control unit  28 , said first scaling factor  17  and said second scaling factor  19  are modified such that the respective amplitudes of both the scaled analogue signal  20  and the scaled digital signal  21  approach the desired value.  
     [0040] The scaled digital signal  21  is forwarded via a sound control unit  29  to the switching unit  30 . The scaled analogue signal  20  is connected to the time delay unit  31 , which delays the scaled analogue signal  20  by an amount that compensates the processing time of the sound control unit  29 , such that both signals are again aligned when they arrive at the switching unit  30 .  
     [0041] Depending on the reception situation, either the analogue signal or the digital signal is selected as the major source of the audio output signal  32 . The switching unit is controlled by a control signal  33  that is generated by the digital decoder  5 . Within the digital decoder  5 , the quality of the digital signal is monitored, e.g. by keeping track of the error rate. When the signal quality of the digital signal is not sufficient any more, the control signal  33  triggers that the switching unit  30  switches to the analogue signal, and the analogue signal becomes the major source of the audio output signal  32 . As soon as the signal quality of the digital signal is acceptable again, the switching unit  30  will switch back to the digital signal.  
     [0042] According to the invention, the sound control unit  29  modifies the audio bandwidth of the scaled digital signal  21  as a function of the reception situation. When the error rate of the digital signal increases, it is likely that the receiver will soon switch to the analogue signal, and therefore, the sound control unit  29  will start to slowly reduce the audio bandwidth of the digital signal. Also in case of frequent switching, the audio bandwidth of the digital signal will be reduced. Both the error rate and the occurrence of switching are tracked by the digital decoder  5 . The digital decoder  5  generates a sound control signal  34  that controls the audio bandwidth of the digital signal.  
     [0043] Preferably, the sound control unit is realized by means of a tunable bandwidth filter, whereby the filter&#39;s upper cut-off frequency determines the audio bandwidth of the digital signal. The cut-off frequency is varied according to the sound control signal  34 .  
     [0044] There are different possible ways of implementing a tunable bandwidth filter. According to a first embodiment of the invention, the tunable bandwidth filter is realized as an IIR filter. The cut-off frequency depends on the values of the filter coefficients, and therefore, the filter&#39;s cut-off frequency can be varied by varying the filter coefficients.  
     [0045] According to a second embodiment of the invention, a tunable bandwidth filter is realized by means of a first complex mixer, a first sharp lowpass filter, a second complex mixer, a second sharp lowpass filter and a third complex mixer. The initial signal is frequency shifted by said first complex mixer. Next, the bandwidth of the first sideband of the shifted signal is reduced according to the first sharp lowpass filter&#39;s cut-off frequency. After shifting the signal by the second complex mixer, the bandwidth of the second sideband is reduced according to the second sharp filter&#39;s cut-off frequency. Last, the third complex mixer shifts the thus obtained signal back to the initial position. A tunable bandwidth filter according to this implementation allows to vary the bandwidth by selecting the mixing frequencies of said first, second and third complex mixers.  
     [0046] A third embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. In FIG. 2, the real valued input signal shown in FIG. 3 a) that shall be lowpass filtered with a bandwidth f b  is input to a single sideband reduction unit  38  to be reduced to one sideband. The resulting single sideband signal which is shown in FIG. 3 b ) is input to a first frequency shifter  36  which is connected to the output of the single sideband reduction unit  38  to be shifted in the frequency domain by f c -f b  so that f b  matches f c  which is the cut-off frequency of the lowpass filter  35 . The lowpass filter  35  is connected to the output of the first frequency shifter  36 . The frequency shifted single sideband signal and the transfer function of the lowpass filter  35  are shown in FIG. 3 c ). After the lowpass filtering, the signal is shifted back by a second frequency shifter  37  that compensates the first frequency shift and the group delay N 2  of the lowpass filter  35 . By determining the real part of the resulting signal ( 39 ), the wanted real valued signal reduced to the bandwidth f b  is obtained, as it is shown in FIG. 3 d ). In this way, the bandwidth can be tuned very easily just by changing one parameter, i.e. the bandwidth f b .  
     [0047] The single sideband reduction unit  38  shown in FIG. 2 comprises a Hilbert-filter  38   a,  i.e. a real filter, which receives the real valued input signal, whereby the output signal of said Hilbert-filter  38   a  represents the imaginary part of the single sideband signal. Further, the real valued input signal that undergoes a delay of N 1  in a delay element  38   b , with said delay N 1  being equal to the group delay of the Hilbert-filter  38   a , provides the real part of the single sideband signal. In the above description, the upper sideband is used to perform the filtering. Of course, instead the lower sideband can be used as well. In this case a multiplication of the output signal of the Hilbert-filter with −1 has to be performed additionally and the frequency shifts have to be realized in the opposite direction, respectively.  
     [0048] The requirements for the transfer function of the Hilbert-filter are very relaxed. It is not necessary to have a pure single sideband signal, it is sufficient to have a vestigial sideband signal which requires only shorter filters for the Hilbert-transform. If there is a minimum bandwidth |±f b,min | defined for the tunable filter, the transition band can exploit the whole range from −f b,min  up to f b,min . Moreover, ripples above a defined maximum bandwidth |±f b,max |, i.e. below −f b,max  and/or above f b,max  with bandwidth |±f b,min |&lt;|f b,max | can be accepted.  
     [0049] Further, it is possible to subsample the single sideband signal due to its reduced bandwidth before shifting. Therefore, a sharper lowpass filtering can be applied and/or the calculation power for the mixers and the lowpass is reduced. The corresponding up-sampling can be done on the real valued output signal, i.e. after frequency shift, actual filtering and frequency shift and filter group delay compensation. The filter system is linear and has a linear phase, as no IIR filters need to be used. The filter can be easily implemented on a digital signal processor as no IIR filters are used that could cause problems in fixed point implementations. The Hilbert-transform and the lowpass filter can be realized as FIR filters that are very convenient and effective for DSP realization.