Institut für Rundfunktechnik

The Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH (IRT) (Institute for Broadcasting Technology Ltd.) was a research centre of German broadcasters (ARD / ZDF / DLR), Austria's broadcaster (ORF) and the Swiss public broadcaster (SRG / SSR). It was responsible for research on broadcasting technology. It was founded in 1956 and was located in Munich, Germany.

They invented or were influential in the research, development and field-testing of important standards such as ARI, RDS, VPS, DSR, DAB and DVB-T.

Institut für Rundfunktechnik was a founding member of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) consortium of broadcasting and Internet industry companies that established an open European standard (called HbbTV) for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface.

In 2020, ZDF and then other supporters indicated that they planned to withdraw from the organization, so the IRT was closed by the end of 2020.

Former members

• Bayerischer Rundfunk
• Deutsche Welle
• Deutschlandradio
• Hessischer Rundfunk
• Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
• Norddeutscher Rundfunk
• Österreichischer Rundfunk
• Radio Bremen
• Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg
• Saarländischer Rundfunk
• SRG SSR
• Südwestrundfunk
• Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln
• ZDF

See also

• BBC Research & Development
• High Com FM (researched and field-trialed by IRT between 1979 and 1984)
• Wittmoor List (maintained by IRT up to June 2018)
• European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
• International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
• DVB Project
• WorldDAB
• Public broadcasting
• Teletext
• Fernmeldetechnisches Zentralamt[de] (FTZ)
• Rundfunk- und Fernsehtechnisches Zentralamt[de] (RFZ)
• Informations-Verarbeitungs-Zentrum[de] (IVZ)

Further reading

• Schierbaum, Thomas; Schmidle, Carola; Nachlinger, Martina, eds. (2020-09-09). [Looking back at 64 years of radio broadcasting history] (in German). Institut für Rundfunktechnik. from the original on 2020-12-01.

External links

• Technical guidelines