News

WorldDAB was the major sponsor of this year's ABU DBS and hosted a DAB+ workshop on Tuesday 6 April. Topics covered: DAB+ in the APAC region (Joan Warner, CRA); global update and why broadcasters are rolling out DAB+ (Patrick Hannon, President WorldDAB); DAB+ standards update (Lindsay Cornell, BBC), DAB+ receivers in cars (Ron Schiffelers, NXP); consumer receivers (Albert Tseng, Keystone Semiconductors), and update on the activities of the WorldDAB Asia Pacific Technical Group (Les Sabel, SComm). Presentations from the workshop are available to download from the WorldDAB website.

In the last couple of years, DAB head-end systems have undergone many improvements. Today, most systems are connected to the internet, so security is in focus. Systems are also more user-friendly with a focus on redundancy and simplification, says Paneda's Lars-Peder Lundgren.

The new wall-mounted DAB+ radio, which is now available to consumers in Germany, can be mounted horizontally as well as vertically.

Radio Italia Anni 60, Radio Juke Box, Italia News 24, Radio Margherita, Radio City 4 You, Radio 80 DAB and Radio Onda d’Urto join 13 others already broadcasting in the CRDAB multiplex.

Radio’s move to becoming a truly multiplatform business has been key to not only retaining but growing our audiences,” said Joan Warner at #DBS2021, with audiences now able to access radio anywhere, any time on any device. In the last quarter 2020 there was a 15% rise in listeners to DAB+ only stations.

The ETSI TS 103 461 standard for digital radio receivers and has been updated to include new standards for car radio digital radio receivers. The latest standard was published in October 2020, it guarantees that all DAB receivers can handle all the requirements, including scripts for all world languages so they can be displayed on digital radio screens.

Vienna's CityMUX Wien II multiplex currently has 13 stations on air, with three additional stations scheduled to launch in the near future.

Seven additional DAB+ stations are now available to listeners in the region, bringing the total number of DAB+ stations in Liguria to 58.

19% of all in-car radio listening in the Netherlands currently takes place via DAB+, a daily equivalent of over 600,000 listeners. This number is expected to grow in the near future, as the EECC requires new passenger cars across Europe to include digital terrestrial radio capabilities.

Invited by the French regulator CSA, French radio stakeholders have launched the first Fête de la Radio - a week-long event starting on May 31 aimed at celebrating radio and informing industry professionals and the wider public on the benefits of DAB+ digital radio.