Get ready for digital radio with DAB+

By Ty Pendlebury on 17 July 2007

The widespread introduction of digital radio in Australia has inched closer with the world's first test of the new digital radio standard, DAB+, in Sydney today.

iPod

Listening to digital radio will be easy with the upcoming iPod DAB+ dongle.

Adoption of the new DAB+ standard wouldn't require all the existing analog TV stations to be taken off air, as the current DAB standard would, meaning that digital radio stations could be launched much sooner than the current timeframe of 2010 or later. This is because the new DAB+ standard, which uses the AAC codec seen in the iPod, doesn't require as much bandwidth as the existing DAB standard.

At the moment it's only an industry test, but all of the commercial and public broadcasters (ABC and SBS) are participating. However, the only "listener" at this stage is a technician's PC with a DAB+ tuner on-board.

Presently no consumer equipment is available which can decode DAB+. There are, however, plenty of devices in the pipeline, including standalone tuners and an iPod dongle, which should retail for around AU$100. These are expected to arrive on shelves by Christmas -- in time for the official public test in January 2008.

Topics: dab+, dab, digital radio, radio, ipod, standard, dongle, station, tuner, existing

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Comments (8)

  • mc commented on 02/05/2009 11:31 Report abuse

    Yes, we could have a US style satellite subscription radio system. Though of course, the people offering this service have gone broke.

  • raman commented on 24/04/2009 21:00 Report abuse

    how to connect with radio in fiji island nokia95 n

  • kg commented on 29/07/2008 22:32 Report abuse

    DAB+ is excellent. enougth said. the us (HA Radio?) and dab codecs suck and were a major mistake, thats why we didnt follow.

  • Enroh Sicnarf commented on 25/07/2008 22:02 Report abuse

    Australia is the first country to trial and adopt the DAB+ stanard. There are no other countries apart from the UK running DAB standard digitial. So Oz is breaking new ground. I am hoping that all the major car radio manufaturers will produce an attachment that plugs into the CD changer port with pass through for the changer. As well as the new DAB+ home turners being produced a affordable prices and not use this as a 100% profit recouping excerise.

  • Amelek commented on 08/07/2008 19:45 Report abuse

    DAB+ is coming to Europe aswell. No worries there. :)

  • matturn commented on 12/06/2008 11:53 Report abuse

    DAB+ isn't used in Europe either. We are choosing a standard that no-one else uses.

  • R G Reid commented on 27/10/2007 10:37 Report abuse

    Why are we so adamant in adopting this "european" standard when in fact it is almost impossible to buy a DAB+ receiver anywhere in the world. On the other hand, if we just accepted being a US client state, we could adopt functioning USA digital broadcasting/pay services, and have access to existing consumer products.

  • Bozo commented on 18/07/2007 19:46 Report abuse

    What!? ... So my existing car radio wont receive anymore **** off, will I buy into more of this user pay BS,

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