Webeye

May 8 2008 – DAB+ The Future Of Radio Is Digital

In Elseware on April 16, 2008 at 3:39 pm

It sat in the corner of the room, on a shelf. A shiny wooden box, 600 by 400 mm, a row of knobs, below a lit dial, that listed names of exotic places like Hilversum, Cologne, Vienna, Luxembourg. It was the family radio, and it was a big part of my young life. As I grew, the radios got smaller, the big wooden box being replaced with one the size of a biscuit tin, then one you could clip to your belt, and now I have one that is no bigger than my thumb. Not only is the thumb sized device a radio, but it also plays MP3s, and is a voice recorder.

I grew up loving radios, and the sounds that came out of them. Now I hardly listen to anything other than the news on National, and find the current programming, provided by the commercial stations not to my esoteric musical tastes. All this could change with the introduction of digital radio.

Coming to New Zealand, some time in the very near future, is DAB+. It may sound like a new, wonder dishwasher powder with added gunk removal, but DAB+ is the format chosen by Kordia, the government-owned transmission company, to be the way we receive radio in the future. It is trialling DAB+ broadcasts in Wellington.

Currently, radio is broadcast in analogue format. Basically the fluctuations in air pressure caused by a sound, move a diaphragm microphone, this creates similar changes in an electric circuit, which are then broadcast through the ether, and a radio receives them, converting them back to sound by vibrating a speaker. However with digital radio, the sound picked up by the microphone is converted into a string of zeroes and ones, and the equipment then transmits those bits to a radio that converts them to sound. The reasons for converting to digital is an improvement in sound quality, and the ability to make more slots available to broadcasters. Where once there was one station broadcasting classic hits and banal chatter from announcers, there can, with digital, be many more. The lucky Norwegians, living in Sørlandet, now have 21 stations instead of 6. There may be many more stations, but the expected increase in sound quality was not experienced in parts of Europe, due to the broadcasting companies lowering the bit rate, so that they could squeeze in more stations. A high bit rate equals better sound. Listeners to the BBC classical station, Radio 3, complained, and the bit rate was increased to 192 kbps, which is, as near to CD quality as can be.

Kordia has chosen to go with DAB+, despite the fact that commercial stations keep mumbling about being unhappy with having to purchase new frequency licenses, and wanting to use HD radio which can be used on their current FM licence. HD is the digital format used in the USA. The reason for Kordia’s decision is that DAB+ is a relatively new standard that has superior specifications, hopefully making the radio experience more enjoyable.

All this does mean that, some day in the near future, you will have to replace the radios in your house, and your car. Current models in the UK cost around $70. However you can look forward to the new DAB+ radio’s features such as pausing, and rewinding live radio, and an electronic programming guide, allowing tuning stations, by name. There may even be slide-shows to accompany the music, true Radio With Pictures. And don’t forget that better sound-quality. I just hope there is better programme quality.