Advantages

•    High quality sound

Broadband internet radio offers higher audio quality than DAB radios. Since DAB uses the obsolete MP2 audio codec, the sound produced will not be as good as the sound produced by internet radio which uses advanced MP3, WMA and AAC/AAC+ audio codec’s. Internet radio stations that use bit rate of 128 kbps or higher will offer better sound quality.

•    On-demand programmes

This option gives the listeners the freedom to listen again to their favourite shows. Internet radio streams are similar to the normal continuous live radio broadcast which means they are ‘live’. On-demand is just like video-on-demand, wherein the listeners are given the freedom to listen to their favourites among the available list of programmes. Systems that facilitate interactivity can alone support On-demand streams. Internet is one such a system that allows the data to travel in both directions, for instance, telling the server the programme preferred by the listener. BBC player is a good example that offers on-demand radio service known as BBC’s Listen Again service.

•    More radio stations

The listeners get to select from a number of station options as it offers thousands of Internet radio stations covering various genres.

•    Podcasts
Podcasts is another enhanced option offered, which are audio files normally available in the Mp3 format. They are downloaded to a computer. Just like internet radio station, there are innumerable podcast providers. Few people use these podcasts for audio blogging.

•    Personalised radio stations

Personalised radio stations are gaining popularity which tracks down as to what music the user listens to and what tracks they fast forward on the personalised radio station. With regard to this information, a computer algorithm guesses the music tracks preferred by the listener and then plays them in the user’s personal radio station. last.fm and Pandora are examples of a personalised radio station.

Those apart, with the introduction of Wi-Fi Internet radios and Wi-Fi media adaptors which directly plugs into the Hi-Fi systems, you can listen to radio and work in the computer simultaneously. Various Wi-Fi radio devices enable people to listen to Internet radio stations, podcasts and on-demand programmes. Apart from that, there are options to include personalised radio stations.

Internet radio portals offering on-demand services

BBC iPlayer offers BBC’s Listen Again service which is completely integrated together with on-demand TV streams. The quality of the on-demand streams have been improved significantly.

Global Radio is considered to be the largest commercial radio offering on-demand streams for a number of its bigger stations including Classic FM, XFM, Capital Radio, Heart and Galaxy. These radio stations are available through the radio stations’ websites.

Shoutcast in a pretty good internet radio station with 20,000 streams and the radio stations are listed based on its genres and by default, it lists stations in order of their popularity. Information of the playing tracks is also provided.

AOL Radio deals with 200 stations covering various genres and they offer good streams as well.

iTunes is a user friendly Internet radio portal. They offer the station name, bit rate level and short details of the station.

The internet radio portal Reciva offers more than 10,000 stations and over 20,000 on-demand streams. It allows the user to search by location and by genre.

Multicast radio streams

In multicast, one stream is carried on any Internet link unlike in the unicast streaming distribution technology, wherein the broadcaster sends individual stream to each listener. Here, the broadcaster will send just one stream for each of its channels rather than tens of thousands of streams. This in turn reduces the bandwidth required by the broadcaster, enabling them to offer higher bit rate levels for the streams, increasing the audio quality.

This makes the multicast an efficient method for distributing live Internet radio (and TV) streams.

In comparison with DAB radio, broadband internet radio offers enhanced features and better audio quality.

Get more information on Broadband Providers, Wireless Routers and USB Pen Drives

1. Easy handling
DAB radio is designed to be handled easily. Anyone can tune DAB stations easily without mentioning frequencies and instead of that you may use name of the radio station or format. It will automatically list all the station names.

2. Availability of more stations
Unlike FM or AM, DAB radio offers more radio stations. It is capable of offering more bandwidth than other traditional radio stations. Though you are in a rural area in the UK, you can listen to broadcasting of more radio stations.

3. Service cost
DAB radio broadcasting is offered free of cost to the UK people. You have to pay some amount for buying a DAB receiver to get DAB access. That’s it. Apart from that actual cost, no need to pay anything extra for getting DAB broadcasting.

4. Quality of broadcasting
The listeners can experience unique quality in receiving signals. You can enjoy programs without hassles such as multi-path fading or interference or noises. You will never get a hissing experience, if the signal is weak.

5. Additional Data
Apart from the name of the radio station, you can know some more details like:
• Song titles
• Music type
• News
• Traffic updates
• Advance program guides
• Pause facility in even live broadcasts

Be aware of the drawbacks too
The DAB radio is criticised on certain grounds. The original quality of the sound may change when the analogue signal is converted into digital signal. Most of the music radio stations broadcast programs only in mono format instead of stereo format. When you are away from the limited coverage, you may not be able to receive signals properly. This may lead to poor broadcasting. The DAB coverage area has to be expanded which is a major drawback. The cost of transmitting analogue to digital is higher than FM in DAB. You have to utilise more power for accessing DAB.

Digital transmission technology was initially encouraged to get more stations with impressive audio quality. The UK is one of the market leaders in manufacturing DAB radios. DAB is an acronym of Digital Radio Broadcasting through which listeners can enjoy digital audio sound. When you have DAB Radio at your home, you can tune more stations than FM Radio.

Brief Flashback
The first trail broadcasting was made in the year 1990. The UK was relayed first public broadcasting in 1993. A unique protocol specification was decided during the year 1993 and it was successfully accepted by the ITU-R standardization body. A few other countries also tried pilot broadcasts during the year 1995. The UK has got a crown of the first country which received digital radio stations through DAB technology. Later on DAB technology was marketed for commercial purposes in the year 1999. Now it has reached almost all the heart of radio listeners by operating more than 1,000 DAB stations world wide.

Difference in technology
Technology used for DAB is entirely different from that used for FM broadcasting. FM has faced lots of issues due to ‘multi path’ interference. It is a main cause for getting disturbance in FM reception. This ‘multi path’ interference is completely eliminated in DAB technology which uses processors. These processors have come with the potential to filter out all interference. The processors have the stuff to correct even errors in signals. All the delayed signals will be combined to make high quality reception by using a receiver in DAB radios.

Advantages
You may be interested to know the name of the music album, the name of the musician and the name of the movie while you listen to a song in standard radio. It might not be possible at that time. But now you can know all these details by using DAB radio. It features a small screen and you can read even headlines in the small screens from advanced DAB stations.

An impressive advantage of DAB is ‘EPG’ which is a short form of ‘Electronic Program Guide’. Listeners can get the database of programs to be broadcasted for the coming days in advance. If you wish to record your favourite programs, you can make arrangements in advance before it is broadcasted. You can set time to record program till it ends automatically. Then you can play and enjoy whenever you like to listen them. Thanks to DAB inventors!

Digital Radio versus DAB

The term ‘Digital Radio’ is always confused with “DAB”. People think that all the radios, which offer services like radio stations and digital display, are DAB. Actually this is a misconception. DAB includes these features in them.

The remarkable difference between the two is the way of transmitting signals. DAB sends only multiplexing signals unlike FM radio. These multiplexing signals provide various advantages like:

• More digital stations
• Free from fading
• Multi-path
• High quality sound

USEFUL TIPS TO CHOOSE DAB RADIO

As wide range of DAB radios are marketed in the UK, it is not easy to choose a particular DAB radio all of a sudden. It is important to consider certain features in them. Those features are explained in brief.

• Be aware of various types of DAB. You can get clock DAB, table top DAB, in-car DAB, hand held DAB and hi-fi DAB.

• An ideal DAB radio has to have a digital display to show channel names, the karaoke etc.

• Recording capability is essential. If you have this feature in your DAB, you can record your favourite track while it plays by your favourite station.

• Battery support helps you to enjoy music even if there is power failure. Battery usage becomes mandatory in case of portable DAB radios.

• An external aerial socket is a vital feature which helps to get digital stations though you are in a weak signal area.

This useful DAB radio is criticised in certain grounds like delay in transmitting signals. This issue usually arises while you get digital services in room and analogue signals from another nearby room.

DAB stands for Digital Audio Broadcasting and is the move of the UK from analogue radio (FM and AM) to broadcasting on digital frequency. It is transmitted using 0′s and ones, as opposed to analogue which is transmitted in waves. It is a terrestrial based system, meaning it is transmitted just like analogue from towers and has location restrictions. It is not satellite radio.

DAB radio broadcasts on a section of bands in the frequency spectrum called band III. The advantage to this is that more channels can be had for the same radio space. It supposedly has clearer sound and will not suffer interference from cloudy weather or other radio stations.

Like analogue radio, and unlike much digital radio, receiving DAB broadcasts are free. The receiving equipment, i.e. radio to listen, must be purchased. Once the UK is sufficiently covered digitally, all analogue radio services will be phased out. Analogue radios cannot pick up DAB transmissions. A DAB receiver must be obtained to listen to DAB radio.

Radio Types
Digital radio can be heard on the same media as analogue radio such as: boom boxes, kitchen radios, car radios, alarm clocks, shower radios, and home stereos. It can also be heard on some media that are not generally used to listen to analogue radio such as: digital wristwatches, mp3 players, digital radio adaptors, digital broadcast television, and mobile phones. Digital radio broadcasts can only be heard on digital radios certified for Digital Audio Broadcasting. Look for the DAB seal to make sure the radio can pick up DAB broadcasts.

Radio Options

For the most part DAB receivers will be similar to its analogue (FM) radio counterpart. Here are some additional features:

• Digital Text Display – Dab radios have a small LCD display that will tell you the radio station you are on, the name and author of the song/broadcast, and any other information the station chooses to scroll. This display is the only way to see what channel you are choosing. Some units have text scan, which enables the listener to pause or scroll backwards and forwards through the text of a particular channel.
• EPG (electric programme guide) – EPG is accessible on the text display for the purpose of seeing multiple station schedules in advance of programmes. Only some units come with this feature.
• One Touch Tuning – DABs are not tuned with dials or by frequency. One touch tuning means you simply push the button or turn the knob (depending on the unit) and scroll through the stations by name until you find the station you would like to listen to.
• Rewind – Many DAB devices have the capacity to rewind, stop, or pause a live broadcast, retaining 5-45 seconds of memory depending on the unit. More expensive units can hold up to 10 minutes.
• Recording Channels – Some units have the option of recording DAB broadcasts onto tape, cd, ipod, or to a flash memory chip that can be taken to a digital playback device such as a computer or ipod.
• Presets/Timers -Presets for your favourite channels are available in the range of 2-200. You can also get various timers including kitchen and alarm clock. Some units can automatically switch channels for the alarm clock or timer.
• Lines In and Out – Depending on the unit you can get optical and line output for connection to a hi-fi system or built in AUX input for ipods or other music players (cd players etc.). AUX (auxiliary) inputs can be used to play mp3s. Units can also come with USB/mini USB ports (mostly for firmware updates) and in car chargers.

DAB radios can also come with traditional technology such as: headphone jacks, light up LCD displays, alarms (kitchen timers/wake up alarms), speaker connections, chargeable batteries or mains powered, splash or water resistance, remote controls and FM/AM capabilities.

Dual Band
The UK and parts of Europe broadcast DAB on Band III. However many parts of Europe (including Germany) and the world broadcast on L Band. Only a dual band radio will be able to pick up broadcasts on both Band III and L Band. This is necessary if you plan to use your DAB radio or device during travel abroad.

Adaptors
Adaptors are devices to convert your existing digital radio, mp3 player or other receiving unit to pick up DAB transmissions. They can also be used to receive DAB through your freeview (terrestrial) television service or satellite (SkyTV) television.

Aerials/Tuning
DAB signals should come with good coverage. Areas with weak coverage or inside shielded locations will require an aerial for good reception.
• Indoor aerials: Telescopic aerials, ribbon dipoles, and indoor flat aerials are choices for creating reception indoors. Handhelds and portable units usually have a telescoping aerial, which simply folds up from the unit as a thin adjustable pole. Indoor flat aerials look like a small place mat or mouse pad. They are more easily hidden but offer the weakest signal boost. Reception can also be built into headphones requiring no external equipment.
• Outdoor Aerials: There are two types of external aerials: dipole (omni-directional) and Yaggi (unidirectional) or element aerials. They must be affixed as high on the roof top as possible. Yaggi aerials must be aimed towards the DAB transmitter.
• In Car: Cars require a whip aerial, which would be in addition to the AM/FM aerial.

Terminology
• Frequency range – Like FM whose frequency range is 88.1- 108, DAB Band III is 174-240 MHz.
• Multiplex – A multiplex is the frequency equivalent of a mall. It is a group of stations in a band that a radio group can broadcast on. Each group or company may broadcast four or five different stations in their multiplex. Usually these stations are different genres.
• Secondary Services – These services are similar to part time radio stations that have only air programming at specific times or for specific events. To auto-set these stations you must tune into them, while they are actively airing. Then they can be saved to presets or set to automatically tune or flash when they broadcast.