Off Topic > Everything Else
"Digital Radio" (DAB) to replace FM Broadcast?
VulpesRex:
Alright, this is about as non-furry and non-Eurofurence as it can be.
I am asking this here, because it is something which you bold europeans are experimenting with (and which Norway seems about to make official and exclusive by 2017), but which is totally unknown to radio listeners in North America.
WHAT is this "Digital Radio"? Is it likely to officially replace traditional Frequency Modulation ("FM") radio for broadcast media across Europe? Does this mean that everyone will have to either buy convertors or new radio equipment (like home stereos, iPod radios, and car radios) in order to listen to music/news/weather/sports? ???
Do you still have Amplitude Modulation ("AM") Mediumwave broadcasters? For that matter - is there still commercial or public Longwave and Shortwave international broadcast services (I know that the BBC has long since discontinued their North American broadcast services, figuring anyone in the USA who wants to listen does so via streaming audio on the Internet)?
We know nothing of such things over here; the only additional audio broadcast sources here besides the traditional AM and FM broadcast stations are the satellite systems (Sirius, for example)...and most new cars here are not equipped to receive the satellite broadcasts (although you can order it bespoke from the car dealer if you want a custom car, and every dealer has a few (usually "high-end") models on their showroom floor or out in the lot which are so equipped from the factory).
Are there legitimate technical reasons to force a shift? Does it improve sound or range, or free up spectrum space for more broadcasters?
Is there actually Public or Market Demand for this?
...Or is this something being pushed by a few commercial "special interests"?
meeko:
Speaking only as a Brit we have DAB radio and Digital TV. When Digital TV was rolled out converter boxes were supplied to many household to make it less painful and all went reasonably well and analogue TV was switched off.
However there hasn't been any such assistance with DAB radio and even though radio prices are now quite modest public uptake has been slow such that the government now has no plan to switch off analogue radio in the foreseeable future.
We still habe BBC Radio 4 (spoken word) on Long Wave, various BBC and commercial broadcasters on Medium Wave and some broadcasts still from the BBC on Short Wave. Music is still preferred on FM as DAB can be quite patchy.
pierrot90:
They tried DAB in the Netherlands, and it was a total failure.
Now DAB is obsolete and not supported any more, resulting in DAB radio's not functioning.
They're trying DAB+ right now.
Just stick to FM, they won't replace it for the time being. (biggest problem was that the FM range was saturated)
AM is still in use today. Although mostly are public radio services.
Cheetah:
DAB has a hard time getting adopted because ... nobody really needs it. At home, pretty much everyone I know has switched to internet streaming of some sort - and there's no need for either DAB or traditional FM radio any more.
For use in the car, a standard wins or loses by coverage - and one thing you can't beat FM radio for, is the fault tolerance. Even if you're at the outer edge of a transmitters range ,you can pretty much still keep listening - even if there's the occasional bit of static or dropouts. With DAB, if you don't have perfect coverage, it pretty much cuts out and that's it.
Another thing is: Overpriced subscription services. Who in their right mind will pay for digital traffic information, if google basically provides it for free?
Leophan:
I can confirm that Norway will close it's FM band in 2017 in favor of DAB and DAB+
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