The introduction of DAB was complicated by the lack of a wide range of available digital receivers at that time. This problem has already been resolved: since 2001 the manufacture of digital receivers has been accelerated and over 500 million people around the world can now receive over 1000 DAB services. Currently there are over 290 different receivers - desktop receivers, pocket radios, portable radios and car radios - for the time being in countries where DAB broadcasting has been introduced but the number of DAB+ enabled devices is also on the increase. As far as the prices are concerned, there can already be bought devices from as little as 40 Euros.
For further information about the DAB, DAB+, DMB receivers, please, visit the next page:
www.worlddab.org
DAB receivers
DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) is an innovation from the nineties in radio program broadcasting, developed through cooperation among West European countries. DAB modernises radio services through the benefits offered by the digital technology. It is significantly different from conventional analogue broadcasting – e.g. instead of just one service per frequency as is the case on FM, DAB permits up to 9 (or more) services on a single frequency.
DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) is a radio broadcasting technology based on digital modulation offering reliable reception even under unfavourable broadcasting conditions or for those happening to be listening while driving, if the required network of transmitters is available, and offering better near-CD sound for the listener and the possibility of transmitting supplementary visual and textual information.
Its main characteristics:
- excellent quality of sound
- increased efficiency in the utilisation of the allocated frequency
- an increasingly wide choice of programs
- possibility to provide supplementary services
- reliable reception even under unfavourable terrain conditions or while driving.
The main difference between DAB and DRM systems can be hardly described already, at the very start this arose from their aims and the encoding methods used by them.
As far as the aim is concerned, DAB was primarily devoted to the reception of radio signals during mobile reception and with DRM its elaborators (the DRM Consortium) wanted to realise the digital transmission of radio signals of AM band (long, medium and shortwave).
As far as the encoding method is concerned, DAB used at its start the MPEG Audio Layer II (or MPEG-1 Layer II, or MP2) encoding method, which is a dominant encoding standard for audio broadcasting as part of the DAB digital radio and DVB digital television standards. Contrarily, DRM uses the MPEG-4 (or HE AAC v2, or MP4) encoding – and this method is used by the developing DAB+ standard, as well.
The abbreviation DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) refers to the international non-profit consortium composed of broadcasters, network providers, transmitter and receiver manufacturers, universities and others.
DRM is also the name of the digital radio broadcasting developed by the consortium, to replace the existing long, medium and short term (30 kHz-30 MHz) broadcasting systems. Its main characteristics are the near-FM sound quality plus the ease-of-use that comes from digital transmissions and DRM can be used for a range of audio content, has the capacity to integrate text and data. This additional content can be displayed on DRM receivers to enhance the listening experience.
The aim of the organization, at the beginning, was the digitalization of the radio frequencies below 30 MHz. In 2005, the DRM Consortium decided to extend the DRM system under the project name DRM+ to operate in all the broadcasting bands up to 174 MHz. Trials of DRM+ in Band III have begun in Germany on 1st of February 2010 with a DRM+ transmitter of a power of 100 watts in VHF Band III (174-230 MHz) to determine whether the DRM+ system together with DAB/DAB+ are suitable for Band III. The VHF band III was allocated for digital broadcasting at the ITU Regional Administrative Radio Conference, RRC-06.
The main difference between DAB and DRM systems can be hardly described already, at the very start this arose from their aims and the encoding methods used by them.
As far as the aim is concerned, DAB was primarily devoted to the reception of radio signals during mobile reception and with DRM its elaborators (the DRM Consortium) wanted to realise the digital transmission of radio signals of AM band (long, medium and shortwave).
As far as the encoding method is concerned, DAB used at its start the MPEG Audio Layer II (or MPEG-1 Layer II, or MP2) encoding method, which is a dominant encoding standard for audio broadcasting as part of the DAB digital radio and DVB digital television standards. Contrarily, DRM uses the MPEG-4 (or HE AAC v2, or MP4) encoding – and this method is used by the developing DAB+ standard, as well.