Digital Radio - Consumer Technology

The DAB+ standard is the umbrella platform/technology that has been announced for Australian digital radio use. Therefore, the nation's radio consumers requires DAB+ receivers to access the digital offerings. The receivers will allow consumers to successfully 'tune' into digital radio when it is eventually rolled out in the Australian capitals at the beginning of 2009. Tuning into stations will be as simple as selecting a station from a menu list. Thus, tuning may be a redundant concept, unless we (consumers) don't wish to dispose of our analogue radios.

2008 will be a critical year for the marketing of digital radio (DAB+) to consumers. Joan Warner, the head of Commercial Radio Australia is preparing plans, "from mid to late 2008 onwards to build excitement that digital radio is coming."1 Thus, there is little available on the market at the moment. Commercial Radio Australia's Digital Radio brochure2 states that, "Broadcasters are working with receiver manufacturers to have a wide range of exciting DAB+ radios ready for the launch."

There are some receivers commercially available. Listed on the Jaycar website3 is a Digital Radio Receiver (DAB) priced at $249.95, which is a component receiver.

Digital Radio Receiver (DAB)

Mentioned on the Canohm website4 is the Sangean manufacturer of radios. “Sangean is a world leader in the exciting new area of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) with several DAB receivers already available in Australia.”

Neither of these are DAB+ receivers, but presumably with trials of DAB+ happening, DAB+ receivers must be in existence in Australia.

Partnerships in the development of the technology for Australian circumstances exist.

“Peak industry body, Commercial Radio Australia, is working with a number of strategic partners to develop digital radio. The industry has been undertaking consumer trials in Sydney since 2003 in partnership with the national public broadcasters ABC and SBS, under a consortium named Digital Radio Broadcasting Australia (DRBA).

Partnerships have also been established with transmission and receiver manufacturers, advertisers, retailers and software developers, car manufacturers and the intelligent transport systems industry. Australia also works with international bodies and participates in working groups of WorldDMB, an international non-government organisation, and the Asia-Pacific Broadcast Union”5

Unfortunately, there is not currently much information available detailing these partnerships. Recently, commercial radio broadcasters unveiled, “a digital radio-enabled mobile phone that allows users to view, navigate and store visual content such as images and slides broadcast by radio stations. The handset features the “Visual DAB/DAB+” mobile application.”6

This application can offer a range of future interactive services. "For instance, listeners could browse a simple broadcast website, purchase tickets to a concert, vote for music charts or provide user generated content."7

This was developed by The Technology Partnership (TTP) with the broadcast software developed by All In Media (AIM), and was in collaboration with Australian radio broadcasters. All In Media has launched an Australian business, ‘All In Media Pty Ltd’ and are “poised to capitalise on the growing interest in DAB+ in the Australian market."8

Also of interest is that the UK’s leading digital radio manufacturer, Pure, “announced it is establishing a local entity, Pure Australasia, based in Melbourne, to service the new Australian and New Zealand digital radio markets.”9

The Siesta clock radio is a DAB+ upgradeable radio. So, it can receive DAB+ signals with software that is currently being developed. Currently, there is not much information published on software for consumers. It would be interesting if a manufacturer produced different pieces of software for the same receiver. Could be like skins. Skins though could be implemented into the one piece of software anyway.

There are some extra things of interest relating to DAB radio, which will most likely be applied to DAB+ at some point. The first is an iPod plugin, which is already being discussed for DAB+. Another interesting device is the Frontier Silicon Venice 6 streaming audio module. This will support DAB+. A new development in the American HD Radio is a system allowing users to tag songs to their iPods, thus connecting with iTunes and getting access to the song for purchase or more information.

REFERENCES

1 Joan Warner. "Digital Radio 101." Commercial Radio Australia. October 2007. http://www.commercialradio.com.au/files/uploaded/file/Radio_Fest/Digital%20Radio%20101%20Joan%20speech_1.pdf
(12 November 2007).

2 Commercial Radio Australia. "Digital Radio - The Next Generation of Radio is Coming." Digital Radio Australia. 2007. http://www.digitalradioaustralia.com.au/files/uploaded/file/Digital_Radio/Digital%20Radio%20Brochure.pdf (29 October 2007).

3 Jaycar Electronics. "Digital Radio Receiver (DAB)." Jaycar Electronics. 2007. http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=AR1799&CATID=&keywords=DAB&SPECIAL=&form=KEYWORD&ProdCodeOnly=&Keyword1=&Keyword2=&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID= (29 October 2007).

4 Canohm. "Radios." Canohm. 2007. http://www.canohm.com.au/radios.htm (29 October 2007).

5 Commercial Radio Australia. "Digital Radio - The Next Generation of Radio is Coming."

6 Commercial Radio Australia. "Media Release: Australian radio showcases multimedia service on a mobile phone." Commercial Radio Australia. October 2007. http://www.digitalradioaustralia.com.au/index.cfm?page_id=1001&display_news_id_1129=1005(22 October 2007).

7 Joan Warner. "Digital Radio 101."

8 All In Media. "Latest News - All In Media expands into Australia." All In Media. October 2007. http://www.all-in-media.co.uk/fullstory.php?action=fullstory&id=10. (22 October 2007).

9 Commercial Radio Australia. "Media Release: Australian radio showcases multimedia service on a mobile phone."

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