Poll: DAB+ is the future? Digital terrestrial radio broadcasting

Which method do you prefer when listening to radio


  • Total voters
    36
  • Poll closed .
But the FM is very old technology and it needs a replacement - there should be some type of terrestrial radio and it has been decided that it will be DAB+.

It doesn't matter if you like it or not - it will just happen - better just accept it and get used to it.

We've had over 25 years of DAB broadcasts in the UK. The format still hasn't won against FM. This must count as the longest still birth in history.

Entire consumer formats have come and gone in less time: Video8, Hi-8, VHS-C, MiniDV, V2000, Betamax, LaserDisc, DAT, MiniDisc, Digital Compact Cassette (DCC), HD-DVD, S-VHS, D-VHS, 3D to name but a few.

I can think of no other consumer format as despised as DAB. Even people who bet on Betamax look back at that format with some fondness. It was better than VHS, but it just wasn't marketed as successfully.

The story could have been so different with DAB. Greatness was within its grasp. All they needed do was make sure it had a sufficient bit rate to sound decent, but they screwed it up and went for quantity because of greed.
 
We've had over 25 years of DAB broadcasts in the UK. The format still hasn't won against FM. This must count as the longest still birth in history.

Entire consumer formats have come and gone in less time: Video8, Hi-8, VHS-C, MiniDV, V2000, Betamax, LaserDisc, DAT, MiniDisc, Digital Compact Cassette (DCC), HD-DVD, S-VHS, D-VHS, 3D to name but a few.

I can think of no other consumer format as despised as DAB. Even people who bet on Betamax look back at that format with some fondness. It was better than VHS, but it just wasn't marketed as successfully.

The story could have been so different with DAB. Greatness was within its grasp. All they needed do was make sure it had a sufficient bit rate to sound decent, but they screwed it up and went for quantity because of greed.

Well, DAB+ is all the time in development, for example now I hear that the newest codec is HE-AAC v3 (xAAC-HE) which is dramatically improved method for compressing the data to relatively lower bitrates.

Switzerland has decided to switch its FM sites off as early as next year, Norway has already done it, Belgium and Denmark are next.
Germany - I expect between 2025 and 2027 also to go this route.

It will happen, just slightly slowly.
 
Why are you continually spouting on about other countries?

Because these countries are the world leaders and sooner or later they will push you to join them.
The discussion is already there:

Government Digital Radio review puts analogue FM switch-off on the table

"The Media minister John Whittingdale has announced a review into the future of radio which could result in the analogue FM signal finally being switched off.

Digital listening is set to increase to 60 per cent of all radio listening this year, bringing the point at which “digital switchover” can be achieved closer."

https://inews.co.uk/news/media/digi...ttingdale-analogue-fm-switchover-plans-402564
 
Because these countries are the world leaders and sooner or later they will push you to join them.
The discussion is already there:

Government Digital Radio review puts analogue FM switch-off on the table

"The Media minister John Whittingdale has announced a review into the future of radio which could result in the analogue FM signal finally being switched off.

Digital listening is set to increase to 60 per cent of all radio listening this year, bringing the point at which “digital switchover” can be achieved closer."

https://inews.co.uk/news/media/digi...ttingdale-analogue-fm-switchover-plans-402564


First off.... the first link .... all you’ve done is advertising that page ( I’m sure mods look at that ) . Nothing to do with 60% .

2nd I wouldn’t trust the BBC to give me the correct football results even if I knew the score. Terrible organisation. And I think you’ll find if they turned off FM tomorrow a lot of people will go streaming / other routes instead. The reason it hasn’t been cut off after 25 YEARS of DAB is people don’t like it.
 
UK started with an inferior version of DAB I believe, different to Euroland, it was/is crap, on sound and reception. So far I've not seen any improvement in DAB+, in my car it looses signal often and quickly becomes very annoying, so I tend to use FM for the main stations and all is fine.
Indoors DAB other than little sound cubes has been a non starter and now is redundant. Again a good FM tuner with a roof aerial has always out performed DAB on sound quality, it has been some of the finest sound you could get at home if it were listening to a live concert broadcast etc.
Yes times move on, I no longer have tuner of any sort, FM or DAB as I stream radio, which is capable of far higher quality and much wider range of global station.
With 4 and later 5 G coverage better than DAB, then I can also stream in my car.
Conclusion DAB+ is already obsolete and may as well be scrapped.
 
UK started with an inferior version of DAB I believe, different to Euroland, it was/is crap, on sound and reception. So far I've not seen any improvement in DAB+, in my car it looses signal often and quickly becomes very annoying, so I tend to use FM for the main stations and all is fine.
Indoors DAB other than little sound cubes has been a non starter and now is redundant. Again a good FM tuner with a roof aerial has always out performed DAB on sound quality, it has been some of the finest sound you could get at home if it were listening to a live concert broadcast etc.
Yes times move on, I no longer have tuner of any sort, FM or DAB as I stream radio, which is capable of far higher quality and much wider range of global station.
With 4 and later 5 G coverage better than DAB, then I can also stream in my car.
Conclusion DAB+ is already obsolete and may as well be scrapped.

The GSM networks are private, closed and paid, this is what is been tried to be explained to you but you don't get it.

DAB+ is free-to-air and with full access for everyone.
 
Now who's living in the past? Most people have an internet and a mobile connection anyway whether you want to listen to radio or not. So DAB+ is okay for granny to use on little cube in the kitchen to get Radio 3/4. Everyone else won't bother it.

Can I get Radio Paradise on DAB ? or European stations ? No, so it's of no use to me at home or in the car. Plus sounds worse than streaming.
 
quite interesting https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/10/rajar-q3-2019-radio-listening-on-the-up/

Overall digital listening grew by 24.1 million hours or 5% year on year. Listening via online and apps grew by 29.4 million hours (or by 30%) to now account for 13% of all listening and 23% of digital listening. Listening via DAB grew by 2 million hours (or by 0.5%) year on year to now account for 39.7% of all listening and 70% of digital listening. Listening via DTV declined by -7.3m million hours (or by -15%) year on year to now account for 4.2% of all listening and 7% of digital listening.

28% of adults now claim to own a voice-activated speaker, and listening online and via app in home is, for the second consecutive quarter, the fastest growing platform and location, increasing by 22.5 million hours (or by 33%) year on year.

Digital listening in-car reached a new record of 42.2%, growing by 15.2 million hours or 17.4% year on year. With 93% of new cars now coming with DAB as standard, the majority of in-car growth was to DAB which increased by 13.1 million hours or 15.5%. Listening online and via app in car is also becoming increasingly popular, accounting for 5.4million hours of listening and a reach of 2 million listeners.

The most popular digital-only station is KISSTORY, increasing by 18.4% to reach a new record of 2.554 million listeners, followed by BBC 6 Music -the leading BBC digital-only station reaching 2.414 million listeners. BBC Radio 5 Live sports extra grew by 31.3% to reach a new record of 2.195 million listeners, to become the third-most-popular digital-only station.

no, good, update for 2020 https://radiotoday.co.uk/2020/05/rajar-q1-2020-regional-and-local-radio-facts-and-figures/
edit: https://www.rajar.co.uk/docs/news/MIDAS_Spring_2020.pdf more stats

.... so app/IP station listening is increasing as a percentage of the digital market growing 30% to a quarter in the 5% increased digital share , they might be listening to the same stream as the dab one though.

... of the 87million digital car hours 5.4 are app/IP listening to stations, small; I wonder how many hours of music streaming car apps there are, in comparison.
 
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Now who's living in the past? Most people have an internet and a mobile connection anyway whether you want to listen to radio or not. So DAB+ is okay for granny to use on little cube in the kitchen to get Radio 3/4. Everyone else won't bother it.

Can I get Radio Paradise on DAB ? or European stations ? No, so it's of no use to me at home or in the car. Plus sounds worse than streaming.

This is a contradiction. Will your local radio stations be happy if you have full internet access to every station in the world? Are you legally allowed to listen to in the UK an Australian radio without paying the corresponding legal rights and fees to do so?
How much would it cost for you if you want to listen every radio available in the internet?
 
This is a contradiction. Will your local radio stations be happy if you have full internet access to every station in the world? Are you legally allowed to listen to in the UK an Australian radio without paying the corresponding legal rights and fees to do so?
How much would it cost for you if you want to listen every radio available in the internet?

Why would I care what my local stations thinks, I don't listen to them. They are BBC stations, so I have paid a licence fee to the BBC/Gov so who cares.
The rights and fees to broadcast music should be paid by the radio station. What difference does it make where the listener sits? I'm allowed to look at websites around the world and YouTube etc.
DAB is not the future.... certainly not in HiFi terms.
 
Why would I care what my local stations thinks, I don't listen to them. They are BBC stations, so I have paid a licence fee to the BBC/Gov so who cares.
The rights and fees to broadcast music should be paid by the radio station. What difference does it make where the listener sits? I'm allowed to look at websites around the world and YouTube etc.
DAB is not the future.... certainly not in HiFi terms.

DAB+ is the future - there is no other alternative - certainly not streaming because many amateurs run such services with low quality sound.

The radio stations always pay royalties, music copyright and licensing which is always based on the country of broadcasting.

Technically, these foreign streamed stations have no legal right to be listened by you.
 
DAB+ is the future - there is no other alternative - certainly not streaming because many amateurs run such services with low quality sound.

Well the ones I listen to are not low quality sound...... Any station thinking that's a route to success are limiting themselves to kitchen radios or just the news!

Maybe you think streaming TV won't catch on either? :rolleyes:
 
I don't know of any car system that can free of charge receive streaming in the car audio system.

Meanwhile - DAB+ comes in September in one more close country - Luxembourg - after successful trials last December.

"Announced successor of an FM band that it is doomed to eliminate, DAB+ is coming.

2021 will be the year of vaccination. But in the media world, it should also be that of the deployment in Luxembourg of DAB+ (for "digital audio broadcasting"), the digital terrestrial radio often presented as "HD of radio".

New players in the radio world?
Everyone believes in the future of DAB+ in terms of mobility. This is all the more clear that since the end of December, it has become mandatory in the European Union in all new vehicles, whether sold or leased. "And in Luxembourg, with company cars, leasing, etc., the renewal of the vehicle fleet is rather rapid", slips Sam Tabart, director of programs at L'essentiel Radio. The latter was very satisfied, during the December test, to see that with DAB+, his channel could be received in optimum quality as far as the gates of Nancy, on the French side, and Neufchâteau, in Belgium. Something to make him happy.

The listener should not be outdone. With the introduction of DAB+, there should in fact be more broadcasting places available than radios that can claim to be broadcast. Suddenly, we could witness the creation of new programs, or even the arrival of new radios from abroad. Some seem to have already shown interest..."

https://paperjam.lu/article/dab-radio-numerique-arrive-a-r
 
I don't know of any car system that can free of charge receive streaming in the car audio system.

Inbuilt infotainment systems on cars might be both limited on the IP streams you can listen too (eg cannot install tunein, or install any android app, say), and,
if you are using the cars 4G sim that may not have unlimited data,
so, for IP streams, you really need to use either car play or android auto to cast a stream from your mobile phone.

I haven't heard of people complaining about 4g reception in a car, any more than dab reception issues.
 
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