Regional implementations of DAB

The radio technology known as "Digital Audio Broadcasting" (DAB) is being operated in several regions worldwide, either in the form of full commercial services, or as feasibility studies. Along with the UK, we also find a growing user base in countries as Denmark, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and South-Korea.

This article provides details on most of the regions using DAB.

Andorra

In its moment the two public radio stations (Ràdio Nacional d'Andorra and Andorra Música) were broadcast by this system.

Their coverage was practically of 100% of the population of the principality, only using two repeaters: Pic de Maià and Pic de Carroi.

The broadcast was carried out on the block 12D (229.072 MHz).

In 2005 the repeaters were deactivated and in 2006 definitely turned off up to the present. That was made without giving explanations.

Australia

Australia has been testing DAB broadcasting systems since 1999, and larger parts of greater Sydney and Melbourne have DAB coverage.

In October 2005, Helen Coonan, the (then) Australian Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, announced Australia's plans for digital radio. Helen Coonan announced the adoption of a Eureka 147 system but added that the Australian radio industry should investigate different version of DAB. The Australian Government has set a launch date for digital radio in the six state capital cities - 1 January 2009. Australia will use the AAC+ codec provided with upgraded DAB+ standard [ [http://www.commercialradio.com.au/index.cfm?page_id=1148 Commercial radio Australia: The Future] ] . Test transmissions of DAB+ were carried out in Sydney in October 2006. The peak industry body, Commercial Radio Australia, is coordinating the tests.

Austria

In Austria so far there is just a test operation of DAB. The national broadcasting company ORF tests Digital Audio Broadcasting in the capital Vienna and in the province Tyrol.

Belgium

DAB was launched in Belgium in 1997. The transmitter network is rather dense, resulting in an excellent mobile coverage providing 10 public national radio stations.

The ensembles include audio services (four new "DAB only" programmes and simulcasts from FM), [ [http://www.digitaleradio.be/dab/home/home.html Startpagina Digitale Radio ] ] programme related data (program type, announcements and dynamic label) and data services.The receiver situation is improving. Tuners, kitchen radios and handheld devices are on the market and sales are growing fast as a result of a marketing campaign. Investments in new DAB services and more networks are expected, especially for the commercial and regional networks.An upgrade of the transmitter network for excellent indoor coverage is planned.

Canada

Promotion of digital radio is mostly taking place by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, which represents private broadcasters in Canada, though an organization called Digital Radio Rollout, Inc. [http://www.cab-acr.ca/drri/news/nr_nov2803.pdf] Currently, CBC operates DAB stations in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Windsor, Ontario. All these markets also contain commercial stations that operate secondary DAB frequencies. All together, according to the 2005 edition of WRTH, 11 million potential listeners will be covered by this service.

There are stations in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia that are currently field-testing DAB and a DAB-only station is scheduled to operate soon. Altogether, DAB has been well-received in Canada and coverage, whilst still using the L-band, is excellent. Compared to CHUM's subscription digital radio service using the L-band, the stations currently operating in DAB right now are free-to-air.

On 16 June 2005 the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved two subscription satellite digital services, which are partnerred with the Sirius (Sirius Canada Inc.) and XM services (Canadian Satellite Radio Inc.) in the United States, and a third subscription service to be provided by the CHUM radio group using terrestrial transmitters that will only cover mainly urban areas in the south. This system intends to use a derivative of the DAB system for transmission. Among the services planned to be offered on the channels includes urban music, rock, oldies, dance, Motown, Francophone, classical, opera, Christian, Aboriginal, and radio theatre.

With CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM, however, there is currently no indication regarding how this will affect the service.On 15 December 2006, the CRTC, on reviewing the status of DAB in Canada and finding that it was not progressing well, changed its previous policies and will now allow testing of digital systems being tried in the United States, including in-band and out-of-band FM systems. The Eureka 147 system will still be used, but transitional licences will become permanent licences at renewal. Eureka 147 will also be viewed as complementary, and broadcasters will be able to add one Eureka 147 station for each AM or FM station that they now operate.

China

China decided to use DAB and T-DMB for broadcasting radio and televisions. China placed early in 2006 an order of 500 000 receivers. They already broadcast some programs at Beijing and Guangdong.

Czech Republic

In April 2006 the Czech parliament adopted a version of the media law focused on digital broadcasting. The public Czech radio ("Český rozhlas") has applied for permission to broadcast DAB. The new digital radio stations ČRo 4 - Radio WAVE, Rádio Česko, Leonardo and D-dur are provided by Czech radio. These programs are currently transmitting via DVB-T and the Internet. TELEKO company, in cooperation with the public broadcaster Czech radio, started one-month DAB trial on channel 5A in Příbram region on 16th May 2007. The trial in L-band will follow. The goal of these non-commercial trials is promotion of digital radio to the Czech public and administrators. [http://tdab.cz/]

Denmark

In Denmark an extensive rollout of DAB has been made by Danmarks Radio. The goal is that the entire country should be covered in 2007.update after|2007|12|31 More info can be obtained from http://www.dabradio.dk/ including a current [http://www.dabradio.dk/kanjeghoeredab/ coverage map] . About 18 channels are available, which includes 15 DR channels, two channels from 100 FM and one channel from TV2/SBS. Denmark, along with UK are the most successful countries when it comes to DAB adoption.In 2008, 37% of the Danes has access to a DAB radio which makes Denmark the country with the most DAB users in the world per capita. [ [http://politiken.dk/kultur/article469603.ece Danmark er verdensmestre i DAB - Politiken.dk ] ]

DAB coverage is about 90%. In the coming years, more channels are going to be available, just as the analog tv turns off 31 October 2009.

Finland

The Finnish broadcasting corporation YLE started DAB transmissions in 1997, which covered approximately 2 million listeners. However, not many compliant devices were sold and hence the DAB transmitters were switched off in 2005, although transmissions of the digital radio channels continue in the digital television network. Finland is currently investigating providing digital radio via other digital broadcasting systems, such as DVB-H.

France

In a public consultation on digital radio, the four largest French radio broadcasters objected to using the current DAB system; new stakeholders were in favour of keeping compatibility with the UK version. The French communications regulator CSA decided to launch a technical forum about the right choice for digital radio. Some broadcasters asked the regulator to strictly adopt the digital radio system in order to preserve transborder roaming (car radio) and some suggested to design technical variants of the European standard. Implementation of Band III has been strongly suggested by most contributors. The five largest French radio broadcasters are currently participating in a trial of the DVB-H and T-DMB digital broadcasting system in Paris.

Only one VHF T-DAB assignment is implemented. In France T-DAB is implemented in L-band. The percentage of households that can already, or are expected in the near future to receive the quoted number of VHF multiplexes is not significant. However, for the future digital Plan, France has decided to implement T-DAB in Band III.For the time being, CSA has authorised for 6 months an experiment over Paris for T-DMB on channel 11B. The experiment is established by TF1, Europe 1, Europe 2 and VDL, and for duration of six months, beginning on 15 October 2005. It is authorised to broadcast a set of programmes of radio or television having been already the object of agreements with the Council.

Germany

After some years of test operation, regular T-DAB service was launched in April 1999. Licences have been granted to 8 different network operators. They use the T-DAB frequency blocks of the WI95 Plan. The cumulative area of all allotment areas corresponds to seamless coverage of Germany. All network operators are obliged to implement the networks within a time frame of 5 to 8 years in order to provide coverage of more than 80% of the total population. At present about 85% of the German households are located within the service area of T-DAB transmitter networks. However, the market penetration of receiver equipment is still low. In order to improve the situation, several activities are underway. The platform of the "Initiative for Digital Broadcasting" chaired by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour investigates T-DAB issues and aspects of improving the market development.

An "Initiative for Marketing Digital Radio" has been founded by the German network operators and is an open forum for equipment manufacturers, program providers, network operators and marketing experts. An associated "Initiative for Marketing Digital Radio" plays its role as marketing enterprise and is equipped with a budget which is adequate to organize and perform PR- and marketing activities on a larger scale. [ [http://www.digitalradio.de/ Home: Digital Radio ] ]

On 28 January 2008 Germany decided to stop governmental funding of DAB. Poor sales and newer technology has apparently overtaken DAB and German regulators says it is no longer cost effective to continue funding the technology. [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/28/germany_switches_dab_off/] It seems that commercial radio are taking over the frequencies as Germany also starts broadcasts with HE-ACC+ technology, also allowing commercial stations access to broadcast with DAB.

Hong Kong

DAB trials have been conducted on the L Band (1998) [ [http://www.ofta.gov.hk/en/broadcast/dab_report.html OFTA, Office of the Telecommunications Authority, Hong Kong ] ] and on Band III (2004). [ [http://www.rthk.org.hk/about/digitalbroadcasting 香港電台中波數碼廣播測試 RTHK Digital Sound Broadcasting Test ] ] The trials involved all three radio broadcasters: RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong), HKCB (Commercial Radio Hong Kong), and MB (Metro Radio Hong Kong).

Indonesia

Indonesia began DAB trial transmissions on August 2006.There are four DAB radio stations: Prambors, Ramako, Sonora and I-Radio.On the trial period, DAB radios use 10 D FHV frequency.

Ireland

Ireland's public service broadcaster and owner of the sole national transmission network, RTÉ, launched its DAB service to the East and North-East on November 30, 2006, using Channel 12C. [ [http://www.rte.ie/radio/dab.html RTÉ.ie Radio: Information ] ] It initially began with six stations (four live), consisting initially of the RTÉ radio stations. Currently, it carries the four RTÉ stations, an occasional simulcast of the Mediumwave version of RTÉ Radio 1, and four new RTÉ digital-only services, as well as some trial services.

Nearly a year previously, on December 20, 2005, RTÉ announced that DAB trials would begin along the east coast on January 1, 2006. This date was 80 years after Radio Éireann (RTÉ's predecessor) began. By January 5, two transmitters, Clermont Carn and Three Rock Mountain, were transmitting a single multiplex on channel 12C, carrying 6 channels - RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ Lyric FM, Raidió na Gaeltachta, Today FM and the World Radio Network, all at 192 kbit/s. In May, this was reduced to just RTÉ Radio 1 and RTÉ 2FM at 160 kbit/s. These test DAB transmissions ceased on July 13 and DAB remained off-air until the public commencement that November.

A second multiplex appeared in Dublin (Three Rock Mountain transmitter) on block 12A in March 2007 carrying Today FM, Q102, Phantom 105.2, FM104 and 98FM. Today FM was removed from the RTÉ mux on 12C at this time.

DAB development was limited by the lack of Band III frequencies until the GE06 Conference earlier this year. Prior to GE06 (formerly known as RRC-06), the Republic of Ireland had only two channels allocated to DAB: 12C to RTÉ for the entire country and 12A allocated to commercial broadcasting. However, roll-out using the lower channels made available after the conference will most likely be limited until the RTÉ television broadcasts in Band III are moved to UHF.

Local radio franchise areas have been allocated an L band DAB channel, as well as any counties which do not match radio franchises. L band capable receivers are relatively rare in Europe, although are the standard in Canada and other countries.

Italy

In band III VHF (174-220 MHz) in some areas it's possible to hear 3 groups of radio stations:

*Radio Rai (RadioRai1, RadioRai2, RadioRai3, Isoradio, Filodiffusione)

*Club Dab Italia (Radio Capital, RadioDeeJay, Radio Radicale, Radio24, RadioItalia, Radio Maria, M2O,Virgin,R101,RDS)

*Euro Dab (RadioPadania, RTL102,5, RTLWorld, RTLClassic, RadioRadio, Radio Vaticana)

On 1st February 2007 national radio Rai started experimentation of broadcasting in T-DMB in some areas of the country.So far DAB hasn't been successful because of some reasons: high prices of radios, III band VHF used by some TV stations, a lack of national plan for frequencies, a lack of support from Italian national broadcast Rai.

Malta

T-DAB spectrum licenses have been awarded in March 2006.In August 2005, the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) together with the Ministry for Competitiveness and Communications published Malta's policy and implementation strategy on T-DAB. Digi B Network Ltd. was the highest bidder for all the 4 frequency blocks available, and was granted a license in March 2006, although the frequency blocks still needed to be coordinated between neighbouring countries. Digi B is expected to start commercial rollout towards the end of 2007, and will be using the new DAB+ system. [ [http://www.maltameter.com/index.php/option/content/task/view/id/71 Digi B Network to start DAB+ digital radio rollout by the end of 2007 - Maltameter ] ]

The Netherlands

In March 2005, following criticism from politicians from all parties, the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Laurens Jan Brinkhorst announced that The Netherlands has postponed plans to continue rolling out DAB, and will instead evaluate newer technologies. The new technologies which will be assessed include the new version of DAB DRM+ and DVB-H, and are more efficient than the current version of DAB, so it is likely that The Netherlands will end up using an upgraded version of DAB based on the AAC+ codec.

Dutch public radio has been transmitting in block 12C since 2004. Nine radio channels are available, including a non-stop Top 2000 channel and a continuous repetition of the last news bulletin. Territorial coverage of the Netherlands is currently limited, but 70% of the population is covered.

New Zealand

New Zealand has been trialling DAB since November 2006 in Wellington and west Auckland but wants to use the new DAB+ standard once testing is finished.

Norway

Around 20 stations are available on DAB, including all of NRKs broadcast channels and commercial P4 as well as their DAB-only transmission P4 Bandit, and private broadcaster Moox Radio with an experimental music channel. An audio book channel, Bokradioen, was taken off air because of royalty issues. NRK has several DAB channels, some which are exclusive to DAB and some which are available via the FM net in larger cities. During 2007 NRK plans to launch several DAB-only stations. As the DAB network is expanded, some local radio stations are licenced to broadcast via DAB.

The first test transmissions were started in the middle of the 1990s. "NRK Alltid klassisk" started broadcasting in June 1995 and was the world's first all-digital around-the-clock radio, with non-stop classical music. "NRK Alltid nyheter" (news radio) started broadcasting in 1997, at a time when there were only about 25 DAB receivers in Norway.

DAB radio in Norway is divided into a national multiplex on channel 12D, and several regional multiplexes. The regional multiplexes broadcast versions of NRK P1 with regional programming and several other NRK channels which do not fit on the national band.

As of December 2006 about 70% of the population is potentially covered by DAB, but FM is by far the most common method of radio distribution. In Norway the DAB market was very small until the close of 2004, with few available receivers and little demand. Since Christmas 2004, the market has been growing; more than 100,000 units were sold through 2005 and 2006. [ [http://www.nrk.no/programmer/radio/dab_digitalradio/5433973.html Over 50 000 DAB-radioer solgt] ] [ [http://www.propaganda-as.no/hovedseksjon/media/dab-salget+tok+av+i+fjor/art365341.html DAB-salget tok av i fjor] ] As of November 2007, DAB is experiencing a steady increase in popularity, and approximately 12% of the population can receive DAB [ [http://www.kampanje.com/medier/article171702.ece Nærmer seg 500.000 DAB-lyttere - Medier - Kampanje.com ] ] .

On the 26th of November 2006, the Norwegian government decided to let DAB coverage expand to 80% of the population, with two multiplexes available in all areas in May 2007. Norway aims at reaching full national DAB coverage before 2014. The Norwegian Minister of Culture stated that FM-band broadcasting are planned to be switched off when DAB reaches 50% penetration of the market, but the FM-band broadcasting will at least continue until 2014. [ [http://www.tu.no/data/article64433.ece Teknisk Ukeblad: Sikrer DAB] ]

Poland

"Polskie Radio S.A.", the Polish public sound broadcaster, had to stop broadcasting its 4 audio services in Band II DAB Block (105,008 MHz), which covered 8% of the Polish population, due to the lack of electromagnetic compatibility with the existing VHF FM services. In October 2001 the test transmission was resumed in Warsaw on the DAB Block 10B. It is foreseen that this transmission will form the first part of the SFN covering Central Poland.

In January 2004 Poland's Office of Telecommunications and Post Regulation (URTiP) presented a new concept of a frequency planning in Band III. This idea is based on full exploitation of the spectrum by digital sound and television broadcasting after analogue switch off and changing channel spacing from 8 to 7 MHz. This accommodates three national T-DAB layers and one national DVB-T multiplex at the same time.

The official governmental document concerning the digital radio is still being prepared. Unlike in the case of DTT it will not be a possible strategy but rather an analysis of implementation of the system available: T-DAB/DMB or DVB-T/DVB-H. One of the document's recommendations is to plan digital radio networks to be as flexible as possible in order to be able to implement a chosen system.

Polskie Radio (the public broadcaster) intends to locate its own audio services within the DVB-T multiplex.

Portugal

Only the public radio stations from Radiodifusão Portuguesa are broadcast in DAB. The service started in August 1998 on tests within the Expo 98 public. Antena 1, Antena 2, Antena 3, RDP Internacional, RDP África and the RDP regional stations are all broadcast on the single 12B channel on the majority of the country, especially on the district capitals and the main routes.In 2004 Rádio Renascença and RFM joined the 12B channel, overloading the system and having no better quality than FM. The Portuguese government is constantly delaying this matter and now better options are at stake, like the DAB+ and DMB, with better performance and they can use the existing transmitters instead of replacing them for DAB's.

Romania

As of summer 2005, in Bucharest there is a single emitter that broadcasts five radio stations multiplexed on channel 12A (223,936 MHz - Band III). The five digital radio stations (three public service and two commercial) are: Radio România Actualitati, Radio România Muzical, Antena Bucurestilor, Radio Romantic and ProFM. [ [http://www.investromania.ro/news/news.php?aid=2606 InvestRomania - Today's news ] ]

Russian Federation

There are no T-DAB transmitters working at present time, but two licences for commercial T-DAB broadcasting services supposed to be granted now, because of existing interest and demands. Fact|date=February 2007

Singapore

In Singapore, MediaCorp's DigitalRadio was launched on 19 November 1999. Using the Eureka 147 DAB system, DigitalRadio provides six digital-only stations and eight simulcast FM services, along with images and text to supplement the audio. Singapore was the first country to reach full DAB coverage. [ [http://www.digitalradio.sg/aboutdr.htm DigitalRadio Official Website - A Digital Service Of MediaCorp Radio ] ]

Spain

Spain has a DAB population coverage of 60%.There are three national multiplexes: public (192 kbit/s each, but the public classical music radio station has 224 kbit/s stereo, REE has 160 kbit/s mono), and commercial (160 kbit/s stereo) radio stations, with 6 services each. Two radio stations are DAB exclusive but have poor programming (music jukebox).

Catalonia

Catalunya Ràdio the Catalan public broadcasting station broadcasts four simulcast radio stations in DAB with a bitrate of 192 kbit/s. It broadcasts two exclusive radio stations in DAB: Catalunya Digital 1 and 2 with 192 kbit/s each. Catalunya Digital 1 offers music in Catalan and Catalunya Digital 2 offers varied music with the inclusion of the name of the artist and the title of the song that is being listened to.The public Catalan broadcaster has 85% of population coverage but it has three broken DAB transmitters (Rocacorba, Alpicat and la Mussara) that reduce the coverage.

Slovakia

In Slovakia there is no T-DAB service in air at present time, even though all major TV transmitters which have been in collision with VHF T-DAB frequencies moved to UHF band.

weden

Swedish radio is currently offering 7 channels DAB-transmissions and cover 35-40% of the population, mainly in the larger cities.

DAB transmissions in Sweden began with tests as early as 1995, and were later expanded to cover larger parts of the Swedish population.

On 14 December 2005 the Swedish Culture minister, Leif Pagrotsky, announced that the Swedish government was freezing investment in DAB, citing that DAB was very expensive to transmit and that cheaper digital radio systems should be investigated, and digital radio should also be transmitted via the Internet and via the digital terrestrial TV system. The government decision were quickly criticised by Swedish broadcasters.

On the 21 December 2006, the Swedish Government renewed Swedish Radio's license to transmit DAB broadcasts in Sweden. The license also allows Swedish Radio to test technologies as DAB version 2 and DMB. [ [http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/p2/program/artikel.asp?nyheter=1&ProgramID=1012&artikel=1107289 Sveriges Radio fick digital ljudklapp - sr.se ] ] [ [http://www.nyteknik.se/art/48499 Regeringen öppnar för digitalradion - Ny Teknik ] ] DAB transmissions continue with coverage of Stockholm and other cities.

witzerland

The [http://www.dab-digitalradio.ch/?lang=en&c=ausbau extension map] shows the order in which the various regions will be added to the DAB network. In 2005, the North-Eastern parts of Switzerland and the main traffic artery in the Ticino will be fitted out for DAB reception. The year after, Central Switzerland will be added to the DAB reception area and by the end of 2007, the whole German speaking population should be within reach of one of the DAB stations. The tunnels along the main traffic arteries should be covered by DAB by the end of 2007. The remaining regions will be fitted out for DAB reception during the years 2007 to 2010. By 2010, DAB will be available in all of Switzerland. [ [http://www.dab-digitalradio.ch/ DAB - Was ist DAB? ] ]

United Kingdom

Experimental transmissions by the BBC started in 1990 with permanent transmissions covering London in September 1995. In September 1997 the BBC announced its national DAB rollout plans and soon reached 65% coverage. In 2006 the majority of national broadcasters all broadcast on DAB (as well as traditional AM/FM).

The public service broadcaster, the BBC, has been promoting its DAB Digital Radio stations since September 1995 and at present (2006) covers about 88% of the population, including the major motorway network. Progress beyond this figure seems to be slow, leaving some several million of the UK population who still do not know when they will be able to receive DAB. The switch from analogue TV to digital TV (DSO) is imminent, possibly relegating DAB to a lower order of priority. FM will not be switched off when analogue TV is switched off, however, which is a growing misconception.

Due to poor take up and the existing marketplace of installed FM receivers in homes and in particular cars, some broadcasters have recently closed their DAB stations. "We do not believe that - with its current cost structure and infrastructure - [DAB] is an economically viable platform," the commercial broadcaster GCap Media said. [ [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7791a438-ea56-11dc-b3c9-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1 FT.com / Home UK / UK - Crisis talks seek the tipping point for digital radio ] ] [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/06/dab_fail/]

As of August 2005, the BBC national DAB multiplex contains a number of different services, including Radios 1-5, and digital-only services such as Radio Five Live Sports Extra, 6 Music, 1Xtra and BBC7, as well as an EPG.

The Digital One national commercial multiplex began broadcasts on 15 November 1999 with 69% coverage and since then its DAB network has always been more extensive than the BBC's. It contains eight audio stations, an EPG and an experimental video service for mobile phones which was launched in October 2006. Digital One also developed along with Frontier Silicon a low cost silicon chip used in the majority of receivers and is directly responsible for DAB receiver prices falling below £100 in 2002, and as little as £30 in 2006. As a result of this, DAB portable radios are now outselling their analogue counterparts at the highstreet chain Currys.digital (formerly Dixons).

In addition to the national services, by the end of 2004 there were 48 local and regional radio multiplexes, providing over 250 commercial and 34 BBC stations. For example, in London there are already more than 51 different digital stations available. Further regional and local multiplexes are being planned by Ofcom, the UK regulator. The UK has by far the largest number of DAB stations broadcasting in the world, the highest numbers of listeners to these services [http://www.rajar.co.uk/INDEX2.CFM?menuid=5] , and the lowest average audio quality in the world.

References

External links

* [http://www.worlddab.org/ World DAB Forum]