Edition: 2008-Q3
"Unique Digital Radio" for Europe
The history of Digital Radio in Europe, since the definition of DAB in 1993, is a history of difficulties, scarce investments by industry and broadcasters, and commercial success limited to some specific areas only. In order to track back over the history of Digital Radio, let us cut some slices from past articles in the Techical Review.
In 1998, an Editorial titled DAB – is it already out of date? by Phil Laven concluded:
" Radio is essentially a mobile or portable medium. We must pay tribute to the tremendous foresight of the individuals in the Eureka-147 consortium which, from its earliest days, recognized the need to deliver digital audio services to mobile and portable receivers – even under the most difficult reception conditions. Not only did they successfully meet this challenge, they have also developed a superb flexible mechanism for the delivery of high data-rate multimedia services. "
In 2002, another article by Delphine Josse of WorldDAB Forum said:
" DAB, now hitting the market on an industrial scale, has moved into a phase of “industrialisation”, with many new broadcast services starting throughout Europe and beyond. The choice and availability of different types of DAB receivers is also expanding at an encouraging rate. "
A more recent article in 2008 titled Digital Radio — a receiver manufacturers viewpoint, by Colin Crawford of PURE Digital, reports:
" It is well known that the stand-out market for DAB digital radio is the UK, with around 7 million receivers now being used in approximately 27% of UK households. What is less well known is that a small number of other countries have seen similar success when viewed in proportion to the population. Denmark in particular has a thriving DAB market, with a household penetration almost identical to that of the UK. Norway follows close behind Denmark, with Belgium and Switzerland not far behind that. So what is it about these countries which has created successful markets where other countries, notably France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Portugal have so far failed to generate any tangible success? "
The "Babel tower" scenario
Along with the delays and the slow take-up of Digital Radio in certain parts of Europe, a new phantom started to destabilize the Digital Radio investors: new technologies were being developed progressively on top of, or in place of, DAB. This was justified by the progressive out-dating of DAB technologies, in particular those of audio coding, where the use of MPEG-4 AAC (HE AAC v2) allows us to improve the spectral efficiency many times compared to the original MPEG-1 Layer 2 (while the original DAB was not more efficient that analogue FM!).
Candidate Digital Radio systems around Europe now come in a variety of different types:
Together with the audio features, a different mix of additional technical features are supported by the different systems listed above, such as text display (Dynamic Labels, Intellitext, Journaline), travel information for car radios (TPEG and RDS), multimedia transport and rendering on screens when the receivers are equipped with a graphics video processor (BIFS, Broadcast Website, Slide-show), up to real mobile TV services (MPEG-4 H.264 video).
To add even more confusion, different systems are designed to operate in different frequency bands, and regulations may be different country-by-country.
The varying national preferences for Digital Radio might result in different and incompatible receivers being needed in different countries and, when crossing borders, a given car radio or jukebox radio might even go silent!
The "Unique Digital Radio" approach for Europe
In the analogue radio world, the public benefits from having full access to any radio service, everywhere in Europe (or even the world), in given frequency bands. In fact, nearly all receivers sold are FM/AM models of which many can also receive "RDS" services, allowing station identification and more.
In May 2008, the EBU Technical Assembly brought different stakeholders together for a panel session. One statement said that Digital Radio was "in a coma". Everybody had a different view or position on the situation, defined by their own stake. Nobody could give a solution to solve the Digital Radio situation European-wide. Action towards harmonization was needed to give Digital Radio another, or maybe a last, chance.
WorldDMB and the EBU Technical Committee decided shortly afterwards that:
" It is timely not only for Public Service Radio Broadcasters, but for all participant in the radio market, to establish a strategic alliance in order to guarantee ‘continuity’ of Digital Radio services across Europe. In the interest of the European public, and to create the largest possible pan-european market, there should be only a single Digital Radio technology platform, which is branded as “Digital Radio” rather than by technical acronyms and terms. "
In cooperation with EICTA (the European digital technology industry association), it was natural to join efforts for a common great strategic target – the "Unique Digital Radio" concept, which should work ANYWHERE in Europe (and hopefully also in other Countries).
Profiling the receiver market
The "Unique Digital Radio" concept is simple and useful, but it has to be traded with the clear need to allow different classes of receivers, in terms of features and cost. Therefore the Unique Digital Radio concept was extended as follows: a receiver must be able to decode anywhere in Europe all services within its PROFILE (or in lower profiles). This is possible within the current developments and roadmaps of Digital Radio chip manufacturers.
Three profiles have been agreed for services and corresponding receiver features:
Receiver Profile 1 - Standard Radio Receiver
Describes a purely audio receiver with a basic alphanumeric display. In order to avoid fragmentation of markets, standard profile receivers should be able to decode the audio track of advanced profile broadcasts together with the features of the basic profile. The standard radio receiver can cope with different radio technologies such as DAB, DAB+ and DMB.
Receiver Profile 2 - Rich Media Radio Receiver
Describes an audio receiver with a colour screen display of at least 320 x 240 pixels. The receiver is designed to include more functionalities than Profile 1 to deliver a rich media experience to the radio user.
Receiver Profile 3 - Multimedia Receiver
This is a multipurpose receiver with a colour screen display, capable of rendering a full video experience.
It is interesting to note that for all receiver profiles, FM and AM analogue
reception is also recommended.
These receiver profiles provide reassurance to: (i) broadcasters that the services they plan will be receivable, and (ii) manufacturers that their technology investments will be supported by broadcast services.
The consumer also gains from knowing that the product they have chosen contains the necessary features to provide them with a consistent quality of experience as well as assured levels of interoperability across many countries.
Alberto Morello
RAI Director of Research
Chairman of the EBU Technical Committee
Lieven Vermaele
EBU Technical Director
31 October 2008
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