FM Transmission

The traditional solution for Drive-In audio is facilitated by our high powered FM radio transmitter broadcasting direct to the car’s built in radios. The occupants tune to the published radio frequency and listen to the soundtrack.

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Typical drive-in broadcasts the film's soundtrack over low-power FM, but these transmitters were designed for use around the home or hobbiest and don’t offer the sound quality that todays discerning movie-goer expects.

We supply class leading professional quality Eddystone Broadcast XE10 FM transmitter systems that can easily be adjusted from practically nothing, all the way to 10 watts from the front panel, this means we can turn the power up and down, enabling us to achieve exactly the right coverage for each site. Output of the transmitters is adjusted for a clean signal on the drive-in fields whilst keeping within the strict licensing stipulations.

The digital sound systems work as follows: The sound is output from the projector often as a 5.1 LPCM bitstream or analogue to our professional digital mixer to allow for level control,  EQ, compassion and automation that is essential for good quality sound. The signal then feeds the transmitter and antenna.

This results in sound that is equal in quality to the local FM commercial stations. The transmitters have built-in audio processing so the sound quality is good,  there is no hum or background noise, and frequency response is good out to 15kHz. This represents a quantum leap over the sound is experienced with older more traditional transmitters.

As part of our trusted package we supply Deva SmartGen RDS encoders that will identify your Drive-In Cinema by name on the car radio’s display and continuously transmit any promotional or sponsors advertising message to your audience.