I'm intrigued by the news that the BBC is now going to test DAB+ in the coming year.
For several years now we in the RDS Forum have maintained that DAB+ is a much better system for broadcasting digital radio and only now do the BBC appear to be showing any interest.
Germany changed over to DAB+ in 2011 but only 515,000 receivers were sold within the year 2013.
There is a problem in changing systems at this late stage. Older DAB sets are not compatible, so will not pick up the DAB+ signal. Sets built after 2009/10 will work on both DAB and DAB+, but all earlier models would be rendered obsolete. Thus, by changing, the BBC would incur the wrath of many listeners who converted early on.
In the UK around 17.5 million sets have been sold so far and if half of them are obsolete I can see the growth of DAB listening being further hampered.
In the EU there are now only 22.4 million DAB sets in use. Not very impressive when you consider that it's been around for nearly 20 years.
If you subtract the 17.5 million sets sold in the UK it's clear most of European radio listeners are not convinced of the need to switch over from FM. Indeed only Norway and Switzerland have definite plans to switch off FM in the future.
It's all a sorry mess. The Government wants to convert everyone to digital radio but as long as FM with RDS continues to provide an excellent service on cheap listening devices it must be the winner with a life expectancy of many years.
It all reminds me of the adage: “If it ain’t broke….”
For several years now we in the RDS Forum have maintained that DAB+ is a much better system for broadcasting digital radio and only now do the BBC appear to be showing any interest.
Germany changed over to DAB+ in 2011 but only 515,000 receivers were sold within the year 2013.
There is a problem in changing systems at this late stage. Older DAB sets are not compatible, so will not pick up the DAB+ signal. Sets built after 2009/10 will work on both DAB and DAB+, but all earlier models would be rendered obsolete. Thus, by changing, the BBC would incur the wrath of many listeners who converted early on.
In the UK around 17.5 million sets have been sold so far and if half of them are obsolete I can see the growth of DAB listening being further hampered.
In the EU there are now only 22.4 million DAB sets in use. Not very impressive when you consider that it's been around for nearly 20 years.
If you subtract the 17.5 million sets sold in the UK it's clear most of European radio listeners are not convinced of the need to switch over from FM. Indeed only Norway and Switzerland have definite plans to switch off FM in the future.
It's all a sorry mess. The Government wants to convert everyone to digital radio but as long as FM with RDS continues to provide an excellent service on cheap listening devices it must be the winner with a life expectancy of many years.
It all reminds me of the adage: “If it ain’t broke….”
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