About a DAB Radio

Digital Audio Broadcasting, or DAB, is a technology used for broadcasting radio stations in digital format.  DAB can offer better quality broadcasts and reduced background noise.  The technology started in 1980s and has increased in both quality and frequency of use.

History

DAB began as a research project in Europe during the 1980s.  The first radio channel to be widely broadcasted using DAB was the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.  Soon DAB receivers, required to pick up the signals, were widespread across several countries by the late 1990s.  The first DAB systems were subpar to FM radios because of a lower bitrate than that of traditional radio.  In 2007, a new version of DAB was released.  Referred to as DAB+, it offered superior listening performance because of a higher bitrate.

Pros

There are many more stations available on DAB systems than on traditional FM broadcasting.  DAB systems provide higher quality mobile listening than regular radio does.  It is also more resistant to cross-channel interference, reducing background noise significantly.  This is especially useful in countries with high numbers of pirate radio broadcasts.  In addition, DAB systems use variable bandwidth, allocating more bandwidth to music channels than it does to talk and news channels.  This increases the quality of the broadcast of music channels.

Cons

Although technologies involving DAB are improving, there are still some areas that cannot compete with FM radio.  Reception quality can be poor even in well-covered area.  This is especially true for the old DAB system.  If the system receives a lot of errors at once, it struggles to correct the errors, resulting in a bubbling, garbled sound.  Also, DAB signals can be delayed by up to four seconds because of the digital processing.  This means live broadcasts of events are delayed.  In addition, the DAB system was updated in recent years; however, old DAB receivers remain incompatible with the new DAB+ receivers.