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[1] 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.[1][2]