Legacy TV- Audio Technology     

dbx-TV Legacy TV-Audio Technology

The dbx-TV Brochure outlines the program. Open it!

What is dbx-TV?

dbx-TV (from THAT Corporation) offers a substantial portfolio of Intellectual Property (IP) related to the generation and reception of legacy TV-audio standards. For over a decade now, we have offered exclusive access to a significant portfolio of patents covering the BTSC system -- the standard for TV audio broadcasts in North America since 1984. Some of THAT's employees were key players in bringing this standard to life. Our pool of BTSC-related patents has since been licensed worldwide to most every major IC and equipment maker in the TV industry, both in the pro and consumer markets, enabling hundreds of millions of BTSC implementations. As part of this very successful licensing program, we have maintained Standard of Quality (SOQ) guidelines and a specialized test lab to ensure the integrity of all BTSC-enabled products. Most every BTSC-enabled product ever realized has been certified against this SOQ.

Analog vs. Digital Licensing Programs
THAT has had two distinct licensing programs, the original and the digital. The original program was based on several fundamental patents based on inventions by engineers at the former dbx, Inc. during the 1980s, most significantly US Patent 4,539,526 ("Adaptive Signal Weighting System"). These patents and this licensing program were focused on the dbx noise reduction system which is an integral part of the BTSC standard. This program concluded in January of 2004, when the last of the fundamental analog patents expired worldwide. Our digital licensing program began in the mid 1990s when we developed the first DSP-based implementations of BTSC. This pioneering work led to several patents, which were licensed separately from the original portfolio of dbx patents. As the name implies, the digital program covers digital implementations only. However, this program also applies to many aspects of BTSC (not just the dbx noise reduction).

dbx-TV Digital TV-Audio Licensing Lab

Verilog Code for BTSC Implementations
Since 2002, we have added several Verilog-based BTSC licensed solutions for implementing encoders and decoders for both professional and consumer applications, and we have continued to expand our patent portfolio. Our Verilog code now includes everything necessary to generate the 4.5MHz BTSC audio subcarrier from L, R, and SAP input signals, as well as demodulate L, R, and SAP audio from a 4.5MHz subcarrier. Our Verilog code makes it easy for an IC maker to add BTSC to chip designs, either as standalone chips or in conjunction with other digital audio and video functions. The code runs in several modest-sized Xilinx FPGAs which are suitable for limited volume applications (i.e. TV-broadcast equipment). Additionally, we now offer licenses to our patent portfolio with or without access to our Verilog code. While THAT's digital licensing program was well underway when the Analog dbx-TV patent expired, the rise of the digital program was somewhat overshadowed by the fall of the original program. The industry is now coming to terms with THAT's position in digital BTSC, fueled by the growing realization that digital receivers must coexist with analog broadcasts for some time to come.

Extending our Solutions to Other Legacy Audio Standards
After a very strong response to THAT's Verilog-based BTSC solutions, we have now extended our Verilog offerings to cover consumer decoding of the rest of the legacy audio reception standards worldwide, including NICAM, A2, EIAJ, and FM stereo. We and our licensees brand products made using our intellectual property using the dbx-TV trademark, in order to make it easy for consumers to identify our technology in products.

Manufacturers interested in providing dbx-TV legacy TV-audio capability in their products should follow this link to the licensing contact information page.

dbx-TV is a product of THAT Corporation
Copyright © 1997-2008 THAT Corporation